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MASTERPIECES1 


TOLLE  M,MURHL 


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John  Andrew  &  Son,  Se. 


JEAN  FRANCOIS  MILLET 


of 


JEAN  FRANgOIS  MILLET 

A  COLLECTION    OF   FIFTEEN   PICTURES 

AND  A  PORTRAIT  OF  THE  PAINTER 

WITH  INTRODUCTION  AND 

INTERPRETATION 

BY 

ESTELLE  M.  HURLL 


BOSTON   AND  NEW   YORK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
ttifcetfite  prejtf  Cambribge 


COPYRIGHT,  1900,  BY  HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO. 
ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 


PREFACE 

IN  making  a  selection  of  Millet's  pictures,  devoted  as 
they  are  to  the  single  theme  of  French  peasant  life,  va- 
riety of  subject  can  be  obtained  only  by  showing  as  many 
phases  of  that  life  as  possible.  Our  illustrations  there- 
fore represent  both  men  and  women  working  separately 
in  the  tasks  peculiar  to  each,  and  working  together  in 
the  labors  shared  between  them.  There  are  in  addition 
a  few  pictures  of  child  life. 

The  selections  include  a  study  of  the  field,  the  dooryard, 
and  the  home  interior,  and  range  from  the  happiest  to 
the  most  sombre  subjects.  They  show  also  considerable 
variety  in  artistic  motive  and  composition,  and  taken 
together  fairly  represent  the  scope  of  Millet's  work. 

ESTELLE  M.  HURLL. 
NEW  BEDFORD,  MASS. 
March,  1900. 


CONTENTS  AND  LIST  OF  PICTUKES 

PORTRAIT  OF  MILLET.    DRAWN  BY  HIMSELF     .    .    .    Frontispiece 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 

i.  ON  MILLET'S  CHARACTER  AS  AN  ARTIST vii 

n.  ON  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE xi 

m.  HISTORICAL  DIRECTORY  OF  THE  PICTURES  OF  THIS  COL- 
LECTION      xiii 

iv.  OUTLINE  TABLE  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  EVENTS  IN  MIL- 
LET'S LIFE xv 

v.  SOME  OF  MILLET'S  ASSOCIATES xviii 

I.  GOING  TO  WORK 1 

II.  THE  KNITTING  LESSON 7 

m.  THE  POTATO  PLANTERS 13 

IV.  THE  WOMAN  SEWING  BY  LAMPLIGHT 19 

V.  THE  SHEPHERDESS 25 

VI.  THE  WOMAN  FEEDING  HENS 31 

VTI.  THE  ANGELUS 37 

VIH.  FILLING  THE  WATER-BOTTLES 43 

IX.  FEEDING  HER  BIRDS 49 

X.  THE  CHURCH  AT  GREVILLE 55 

XI.  THE  SOWER 61 

XII.  THE  GLEANERS 67 

Xm.  THE  MILKMAID 73 

XIV.  THE  WOMAN  CHURNING 79 

XV.  THE  MAN  WITH  THE  HOE 85 

XVI.  THE  PORTRAIT  OF  MILLET  (see  Frontispiece)   ....  92 
PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY  OF  PROPER  NAMES  AND 

FOREIGN  WORDS 95 

NOTE  :  All  the  pictures  were  made  from  carbon  prints  by  Braun,  Cle*- 
xnent  &  Co. 


INTRODUCTION 


I.   ON  MILLET'S   CHARACTER  AS  AN  ARTIST 

THE  distinctive  features  of  Millet's  art  are  so  marked 
that  the  most  inexperienced  observer  easily  identifies  his 
work.  As  a  painter  of  rustic  subjects,  he  is  unlike  any 
other  artists  who  have  entered  the  same  field,  even  those 
who  have  taken  his  own  themes.  We  get  at  the  heart 
of  the  matter  when  we  say  that  Millet  derived  his  art 
directly  from  nature.  "  If  I  could  only  do  what  I  like," 
he  said,  "  I  would  paint  nothing  that  was  not  the  result  of 
an  impression  directly  received  from  nature,  whether  in 
landscape  or  in  figure."  His  pictures  are  convincing  evi- 
dence that  he  acted  upon  this  theory.  They  have  a  pecul- 
iar quality  of  genuineness  beside  which  all  other  rustic 
art  seems  forced  and  artificial. 

The  human  side  of  life  touched  him  most  deeply,  and  in 
many  of  his  earlier  pictures,  landscape  was  secondary. 
Gradually  he  grew  into  the  larger  conception  of  a  perfect 
harmony  between  man  and  his  environment.  Henceforth 
landscape  ceased  to  be  a  mere  setting  or  background  in  a 
figure  picture,  and  became  an  organic  part  of  the  compo- 
sition. As  a  critic  once  wrote  of  the  Shepherdess,  "  the 
earth  and  sky,  the  scene  and  the  actors,  all  answer  one 
another,  all  hold  together,  belong  together."  The  de- 
scription applies  equally  well  to  many  other  pictures  and 
particularly  to  the  Angelus,  the  Sower,  and  the  Gleaners. 


viii  MILLET 

In  all  these,  landscape  and  figure  are  interdependent,  fit- 
ting together  in  a  perfect  unity. 

As  a  painter  of  landscapes,  Millet  mastered  a  wide 
range  of  the  effects  of  changing  light  during  different 
hours  of  the  day.  The  mists  of  early  morning  in  Filling 
the  Water- Bottles ;  the  glare  of  noonday  in  the  Gleaners ; 
the  sunset  glow  in  the  Angelus  and  the  Shepherdess ;  the 
sombre  twilight  of  the  Sower ;  and  the  glimmering  lamp- 
light of  the  Woman  Sewing,  each  found  perfect  interpre- 
tation. Though  showing  himself  capable  of  representing 
'powerfully  the  more  violent  aspects  of  nature,  he  pre- 
ferred as  a  rule  the  normal  and  quiet. 

In  figure  painting  Millet  sought  neither  grace  nor 
beauty,  but  expression.  That  he  regarded  neither  of 
these  first  two  qualities  as  intrinsically  unworthy,  we  may 
infer  from  the  grace  of  the  Sower,  and  the  naive  beauty 
of  the  Shepherdess  and  the  Woman  Sewing.  But  that 
expression  was  of  paramount  interest  to  him  we  see 
clearly  in  the  Angelus  and  the  Man  with  the  Hoe.  The 
leading  characteristic  of  his  art  is  strength,  and  he  dis- 
trusted the  ordinary  elements  of  prettiness  as  taking  some- 
thing from  the  total  effect  he  wished  to  produce.  "  Let 
no  one  think  that  they  can  force  me  to  prettify  my  types," 
he  said.  "  I  would  rather  do  nothing  than  express  my- 
self feebly." 

It  was  always  his  first  aim  to  make  his  people  look  as 
if  they  belonged  to  their  station.  The  "  mute  inglorious 
Milton  "  and  Maud  Muller  with  her  "  nameless  long- 
ings "  had  no  place  on  his  canvases.  His  was  the  gen- 
uine peasant  of  field  and  farm,  no  imaginary  denizen  of 
the  poets'  Arcady.  "  The  beautiful  is  the  fitting,"  was 
his  final  summary  of  aesthetic  theory,  and  the  theory  was 
put  into  practice  on  every  canvas. 

In  point  of  composition  Millet's  pictures  have  great 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

excellence.  "  I  try  not  to  have  things  look  as  if  chance 
brought  them  together,"  he  said,  "  but  as  if  they  had  a 
necessary  bond  between  them."  So  nothing  is  accidental, 
but  every  object,  however  small,  is  an  indispensable  part 
of  the  whole  scheme. 

An  important  characteristic  of  his  work  is  its  power  to 
suggest  the  third  dimension  of  space.  The  figures  have 
a  solid,  tangible  appearance,  as  if  actually  alive.  The 
Gleaners,  the  Woman  Churning,  and  the  Man  with  the 
Hoe  are  thoroughly  convincing  in  their  reality. 

The  picture  of  the  Gleaners  especially  has  that  so- 
called  "  quality  of  circumambient  light  "  which  circulates 
about  the  objects,  so  to  speak,  and  gives  them  position  in 
space.  Millet's  landscapes  also  have  a  depth  of  spacious- 
ness which  reaches  into  infinite  distance.  The  principles 
of  composition  are  applied  in  perspective  as  well  as  later- 
ally. We  can  look  into  the  picture,  through  it,  and 
beyond  it,  as  if  we  were  standing  in  the  presence  of 
nature. 

Mr.  Bernhard  Berenson  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  this 
art  of  "  space  composition,"  as  he  terms  it,  can  "  directly 
communicate  religious  emotion,"  and  explains  on  this 
ground  the  devotional  influence  of  Perugino's  works, 
which  show  so  remarkable  a  feeling  for  space.1  If  he  is 
right,  it  is  on  this  principle,  rather  than  because  of  its 
subject,  that  the  Angelus  is,  as  it  has  sometimes  been 
called,  "  one  of  the  greatest  religious  paintings  of  the 


While  Millet's  art  is,  in  its  entirety,  quite  unique,  there 
are  certain  interesting  points  of  resemblance  between  his 
work  and  that  of  some  older  masters.  He  is  akin  to 
Rembrandt  both  in  his  indifference  to  beauty  and  in  his 
intense  love  of  human  nature.  Millet's  indifference  to 
1  In  Central  Italian  Painters  of  the  Renaissance. 


x  MILLET 

beauty  is  the  more  remarkable  because  in  this  he  stood 
alone  in  his  day  and  generation,  while  in  the  northern 
art  of  the  seventeenth  century,  of  which  Rembrandt  is  an 
exponent,  beauty  was  never  supreme. 

As  a  lover  of  human  nature,  Millet's  sympathies, 
though  no  less  intense  than  Rembrandt's,  were  less  cath- 
olic. His  range  of  observation  was  limited  to  peasant 
life,  while  the  Dutch  master  painted  all  classes  and  condi- 
tions of  men.  Yet  both  alike  were  profound  students  of 
character  and  regarded  expression  as  the  chief  element 
of  beauty.  Rembrandt,  however,  sought  expression  prin- 
cipally in  the  countenance,  and  Millet  had  a  fuller  under- 
standing of  the  expressiveness  of  the  entire  body.  The 
work  of  each  thus  complements  that  of  the  other. 

Millet's  passion  for  figure  expression  was  first  worked 
out  in  painting  the  nude.  When  he  abandoned  such  sub- 
jects for  the  homelier  themes  of  labor,  he  gave  no  less 
attention  to  the  study  of  form  and  attitude.  The  simple 
clothing  of  the  peasant  is  cut  so  loosely  as  to  give  entire 
freedom  of  motion  to  the  body,  and  it  is  worn  so  long  that 
it  shapes  itself  perfectly  to  the  figure.  The  body  thus 
clad  is  scarcely  inferior  to  the  nude  in  assuming  the  fine 
lines  of  an  expressive  pose. 

Millet's  instinct  for  pose  was  that  of  a  sculptor.  Many 
of  the  figures  for  his  pictures  were  first  carefully  mod- 
elled in  wax  or  clay.  Transferred  to  canvas  they  are 
drawn  in  the  strong  simple  outlines  of  a  statue.  It  is 
no  extravagant  flight  of  fancy  which  has  likened  him  to 
Michelangelo.  In  the  strength  and  seriousness  of  his 
conceptions,  the  bold  sweep  of  his  lines,  and,  above  all,  in 
the  impression  of  motion  which  he  conveys,  he  has  much 
in  common  with  the  great  Italian  master.  Like  Michel- 
angelo, Millet  gives  first  preference  to  the  dramatic 
moment  when  action  is  imminent.  The  Sower  is  in  the 


INTRODUCTION  ri 

act  of  casting  the  seed  into  the  ground,  as  David  is  in 
the  act  of  stretching  his  sling.  As  we  look,  we  seem  to 
see  the  hand  complete  its  motion.  So  also  the  Gleaners, 
the  Women  Filling  the  Water-Bottles,  and  the  Potato 
Planters  are  all  portrayed  in  attitudes  of  performance. 

When  Millet  represents  repose  it  is  as  an  interval  of 
suspended  action,  not  as  the  end  of  completed  work.  The 
Shepherdess  pauses  but  a  moment  in  her  walk  and  will 
immediately  move  on  again.  The  man  and  woman  of  the 
Angelus  rest  only  for  the  prayer  and  then  resume  their 
work.  The  Man  with  the  Hoe  snatches  but  a  brief  re- 
spite from  his  labors.  The  impression  of  power  suggested 
by  his  figure,  even  in  immobility,  recalls  Michelangelo's 
Jeremiah. 

To  the  qualities  which  are  reminiscent  of  Michelangelo 
Millet  adds  another  in  which  he  is  allied  to  the  Greeks. 
This  is  his  tendency  towards  generalization.  It  is  the 
typical  rather  than  the  individual  which  he  strives  to 
present.  "  My  dream,"  he  once  wrote,  "  is  to  character- 
ize the  type."  So  his  figures,  like  those  of  Greek  sculp- 
ture, reproduce  no  particular  model,  but  are  the  general 
type  deduced  from  the  study  of  many  individuals. 

II.    ON  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE 

Since  the  death  of  Millet,  in  1875,  much  that  is  inter- 
esting and  valuable  has  been  written  of  his  life  and  work. 
The  first  biography  of  the  painter  was  that  by  his  friend 
Sensier,  in  a  large  illustrated  volume  whose  contents  have 
been  made  familiar  to  English  readers  by  an  abridged 
translation  published  in  this  country  simultaneously  with 
the  issue  of  the  French  edition.  Containing  all  the  essen- 
tial facts  of  Millet's  outward  life,  besides  a  great  number 
of  the  artist's  letters,  together  with  his  autobiographical 
reminiscences  of  childhood,  Sensier's  work  is  the  principal 


»i  MILLET 

source  of  information,  from  which  all  later  writers  draw. 
Yet  it  is  not  an  altogether  fair  and  satisfactory  presenta- 
tion of  Millet's  life.  Undue  emphasis  is  laid  upon  his 
struggles  with  poverty,  and  the  book  leaves  much  to  be 
desired. 

Julia  Cartwright's  recent  work,  "  Jean  Francois  Millet : 
His  Life  and  Letters,"  is  founded  on  Sensier's  life,  yet 
rounds  out  the  study  of  the  master's  character  and  work 
with  the  fuller  knowledge  with  which  family  and  friends 
have  described  his  career. 

Another  recent  book  called  "  J.  F.  Millet  and  Kustic 
Art  "  is  by  Henry  Naegely  (published  in  England),  and 
is  critical  rather  than  biographical  in  purport.  It  is  a 
sympathetic  appreciation  of  Millet's  art  and  character, 
and  grows  out  of  a  careful  study  of  the  painter's  works 
and  an  intimate  connection  with  the  Millet  family. 

Besides  these  books  devoted  exclusively  to  the  subject, 
the  life  work  of  Millet  is  admirably  sketched  in  brief  form 
in  the  following  more  general  works  :  — 

Richard  Muther's  "  History  of  Modern  Painting," 
Mrs.  Stranahan's  "  History  of  French  Painting,"  Rose 
G.  Kingsley's  "History  of  French  Art,"  and  D.  C. 
Thomson's  "  Barbizon  School." 

Of  great  importance  to  the  student  of  Millet  are  the 
various  articles  contributed  to  the  magazines  by  those  who 
knew  and  understood  the  painter.  The  following  are  of 
special  note :  By  Edward  W.  Wheelwright,  in  "  The  At- 
lantic Monthly,"  September,  1876  ;  by  Wyatt  Eaton,  in 
the  "  Century,"  May,  1889  ;  by  T.  H.  Bartlett,  in  "  Scrib- 
ner's,"  May  and  June,  1890 ;  by  Pierre  Millet,  in  "  Cen- 
tury," January,  1893,  and  April,  1894 ;  and  by  Will  Low, 
in  "  McClure's,"  May,  1896.  Julia  Cartwright,  in  the 
preface  to  the  above  mentioned  biography,  mentions  other 
magazine  articles  not  so  generally  accessible. 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

III.  HISTORICAL  DIRECTORY  OF  THE  PICTURES 
OF  THIS  COLLECTION 

Portrait  frontispiece,  a  life-size  crayon  made  by  Millet  in 
1847  and  given  to  his  friend  Cbarlier.  It  afterwards  became 
tbe  property  of  Sensier. 

1.  Going  to  Work,  one  of  several  versions  of  tbe  subject  in 
different  mediums,  oil,  pastel,  drawing,  and  etching.     This  pic- 
ture was  painted  in  1851,  and  was  at  one  time  (1891)  in  a  pri- 
vate collection  in  Glasgow.1     It  is  to  be  distinguished  from  the 
picture  of  1850,  where  the  woman  carries  a  pitcher  instead  of  a 
rope.2 

2.  The  Knitting  Lesson,  a  drawing  corresponding  in  gen- 
eral composition,  with  some  changes   of   detail,   to  the   small 
painting  (17  by   14£  in.)    of  the  subject   in   the  collection   of 
Mrs.  Martin  Brimmer,  in  the  Museum  of   Fine   Arts,  Boston, 
Mass. 

3.  The  Potato  Planters,  painted  in  1862,  and  exhibited  at 
the  great  exhibition  at  Paris  of  that  year,  also  again  in  1867  at 
the  International  Exhibition.     It  changed  hands  for  large  sums 
during  the  painter's  lifetime,  and  is  now  in  the  Quincy  A.  Shaw 
collection,  Boston,  Mass. 

4.  The  Woman  Sewing  by  Lamplight,  painted  in  1872,  and 
sold  in  1873  for  38,500  francs,  the  highest  price  at  that  time 
ever  paid  for  one  of  Millet's  works. 

5.  The  Shepherdess,  painted  in  1862,  and  exhibited  at  the 
Salon  of  1864,  also  again  at  the  Exposition  Universelle  of  1867. 
It  is  now  in  the  collection  of  M.  Chauchard.     A  finished  draw- 
ing of  the  subject  is  in  the  Walters  collection,  Baltimore,  Md. 

6.  The  Woman  Feeding  Hens,  a  charcoal  sketch,  correspond- 
ing in  general  composition  to  the  description  of  a  painting  bear- 
ing the  same  name,  which  was  painted  in  1854  for  M.  Letrone 
for  2000  francs. 

1  See  D.  C.  Thomson's  Barbizon  School,  pp.  226,  227. 

2  See  Julia  Cartwright,  Life  and  Letters  of  Jean  Francois  Millet, 
pp.  114, 115. 


riv  MILLET 

7.  The  Angelus,  an  oil  painting  measuring  25  by  21  in. 
The  first   drawing   for  the  picture  was  sold   February,  1858. 
The  painting  was  completed  for  exhibition  in  the  Salon  of  1859. 
It  was  declined  by  the  patron  for  whom  it  was  intended,  and 
finally  sold  to  a  Belgian  artist  in  1860,  and  soon  afterwards  to 
the   Belgian  minister.     The   original   price  was  2000  francs. 
The  picture  passed  from  one  owner  to  another,  and  in  1873  was 
bought  by  J.  W.  Wilson  for  50,000  francs,  later  bringing  at  the 
Wilson  sale  of  1881  the  sum  of  £6400.     In  an  auction  sale 
of  the  Secre*tan  collection,  July,  1889,  there  was  an  immense 
excitement  over  the  contest  between  the  French  government, 
represented  by  M.  Proust,  Director  of  Fine  Arts,  and  various 
American  dealers,  who  were  determined  to  win  the  prize.     It 
was  finally  knocked  down  to  M.  Proust  for  553,000  francs,  but 
the  French  government  refused  to  ratify  the  purchase,  and  the 
picture  was  brought  to  the  United  States.     Here  the  customs 
duty  exacted  was  so  enormous   (£7000)   that  the  picture  re- 
mained only  six  months  (the  duty  being  waived  during  that 
period),  and  after  being  exhibited  throughout  the  country  finally 
returned  to  France,  where  it  was  purchased  for  £32,000  by 
M.  Chauchard,  who  has  the  finest  collection  of  Millets  in  exist- 
ence.    A  finished  drawing  of  the  Angelus  is  in  the  Walters  col- 
lection, Baltimore,  Md. 

8.  Filling  the   Water-Bottles,    a   charcoal    drawing,   which 
attracted  much  attention  when  exhibited  in  the  Millet  collection 
of  the  Paris  Exposition,  1889. 

9.  Feeding  Her  Birds,  painted  in  1860,  and  exhibited  in 
Salon  of  1861.     Presented  by  a  purchaser  to  the  Museum  of 
Lille  in  1871. 

10.  The  Church  at  Greville,  sketched  during  Millet's  visit  at 
Gre'ville  in  the  summer  of  1871 ;  referred  to  by  him,  in  a  letter 
of  1872,  as  still  in  process  of  painting ;  found  in  his  studio  at 
the  time  of  his  death,  in  1875.     The  picture  was  bought  by  the 
French  government,  and  is  now  in  the  Louvre,  Paris. 

11.  The  Sower,  the   second  painting  of  the  subject,  painted 
in  1850,  and  exhibited  in  the  Salon  of  1850-51.     It  is  now  in 
the  Vanderbilt  collection,  New  York. 


INTRODUCTION  XT 

A  pencil  sketch  of  the  Sower  is  in  the  collection  of  Millet's 
drawings,  at  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,1  and  the  Walters 
collection,  Baltimore,  Md.,  has  a  finished  drawing  of  the  subject. 

12.  The,  Gleaners,  a  painting  first   exhibited  at  the  Salon 
of  1867.     It  was  sold  to  M.  Binder  of  1'Isle  Adam  for  2000 
francs.     In  1889  it  was  purchased  by  Madame  Pommeroy  for 
300,000  francs,  and  presented  to  the  Louvre,  Paris.     A  pencil 
drawing  of  the  three  figures  is  in  the  collection  of  the  Boston 
Museum  of  Fine  Arts. 

13.  The  Milkmaid,  painted  in  1871  from  a  sketch  made  in 
GreVille.     Seen  in  Millet's  studio  in  1873  by  Will  Low,  the 
American  artist. 

14.  The  Woman  Churning,  one  of  several  versions  of  the 
subject,  the  first  of  which  appeared  in  1870. 

15.  The  Man  with  the  Hoe,  painted  in  1862  and  exhibited 
at  the  Salon  of  1863.     Sold  to  a  Belgian  collector,  and  long  iii 
Brussels.     It  is  now  owned  by  W.  S.  Crocker  of  San  Francisco. 

IV.  OUTLINE  TABLE  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  EVENTS 
IN  MILLET'S   LIFE 

1814.     Millet  born,  October  4,  in  hamlet  of  Gruchy,  commune 

of  Greville,  in  the  old  province  of  Normandy,  France. 
1832.     Two  months'  study  with  Mouchel  in  Cherbourg. 

Death  of  Millet's  father. 

Study  with  Langlois  in  Cherbourg. 
1837.     Removal  to  Paris,  supported  by  annuity  of  400  francs 

from  the  municipality  of  Cherbourg.2 

1  This  is  one  of  an  interesting  collection  of  drawings  in  this 
museum,  which  also  contains  several  original  paintings  by  Millet,  a 
Shepherdess,  seated,  a  portrait  of  the  painter,  and  others.     Other 
fine  Millets  are  in  the  private  collections  of  Boston,  where  the  painter 
received  early  appreciation,  owing  to   the   enthusiasm  of  William 
Morris  Hunt,  the  painter,  and  such  connoisseurs  as  Mr.  Quincy  Shaw 
and  Mr.  Brimmer. 

2  To  this  was  added  later  600  francs  from  the  General  Council  of 
La  Manche,  but  both  annuities  were  sooii  discontinued. 


xvi  MILLET 

1837-1839  (?).     Studies  with  Delaroche.1 

1840.  A  portrait  of  M.  L.  F.  exhibited  at  Salon  of  the  Louvre. 

1841.  Portrait  of  Mademoiselle  Antoinette  Feuardent. 

Marriage  with  Mademoiselle  Pauline  Virginie  Ono  in 
Cherbourg. 

1842.  Returned  to  Paris. 

1844.  Millet  exhibited  at  Salon:   the  Milkmaid,  the  Riding 

Lesson. 

Death  of  Millet's  wife,  April  21,  and  Millet's  return 

home  for  18  months. 

1845.  Marriage  with  Catherine  Lemaire  late  in  summer,  in 

GreVille. 

Visit  in  Havre  in  November. 

Arrival  in  Paris  in  December,  and  residence  in  the 

rue  Rochehouart. 

1847.  CEdipus  taken  from  the  Tree  exhibited  at  the  Salon. 

1848.  Millet  exhibited  at  the  Salon  the  Winnower,  bought  by 

M.  Ledru-Rollin  for  500  francs,  and  the  Captivity  of 
the  Jews  in  Babylon. 

1849.  Removal  to  Barbizon. 

1850.  The  Sower  painted  and  exhibited  at  the  Salon  with  the 

Sheaf  Binders. 

1851.  Death   of   Millet's    grandmother,    Louise   Jumelin,   at 

Gruchy. 

1853.  Death  of  Millet's  mother  at  Gruchy. 

Millet  exhibited  at  the  Salon :  — 

Ruth  and  Boaz,  bought  by  an  American. 

The  Sheep  Shearer, )  bought  by  William   Morris 

The  Shepherd,          )      Hunt. 

1854.  Visit  four  months  to  the  surroundings  of  the  old  home 

in  Normandy. 

1855.  The  Grafter,  exhibited  at  the  Salon. 

1856.  Le  Pare  aux  Moutons  painted. 

1  The  exact  date  of  Millet's  severing  connection  with  Delaroche 
is  not  mentioned  by  his  biographers,  though  the  circumstances  are 
detailed. 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

1857.     The  Gleaners  exhibited  at  the  Salon. 
1859.     The  Angelas  exhibited  at  the  Salon. 
1860-1861.     The  Shepherd  in  the  Fold  by  Moonlight,  and  the 
Femme  aux  Seaux. 

1861.  The  Potato  Planters  painted. 

Millet  exhibited  at  the  Salon  of  the  Champs  Elysdes : 
Feeding  Her  Birds. 
Waiting. 
The  Sheep  Shearer. 

1862.  List  of  pictures  painted  :  — 

Winter. 

The  Crows. 

Sheep  Feeding. 

The  Wool  Carder. 

The  Stag. 

The  Birth  of  the  Calf. 

The  Shepherdess. 

The  Man  with  the  Hoe. 

1863.  Millet  sent  to  Salon:  Man  with  the  Hoe,  The  Wool 

Carder  (see  list  of  works  in  1862),  and  a  Shepherd 
bringing  Home  his  Sheep. 

1864.  Millet  exhibited  at  the  Salon :   The  Shepherdess,  and 

The  Birth  of  the  Calf  (see  list  of  works  in  1862). 

1865.  Completion    of  decorative    pictures  for   M.  Thomas : 

Spring  and  Summer,  panels  8  by  4  ft.,  set  in  the 
woodwork ;  Autumn  for  the  ceiling  ;  Winter  for  the 
chimneypiece. 

1866.  Short  visit  to  Vichy,  Auvergne,  Clermont,  Issoire. 

1867.  Millet  exhibited  at  the  Exposition  Universelle  (Interna- 

tional Exhibition)  :  — 

Death  and  the  Woodcutter 

(refused  by  the  Salon  of  1859). 
The  Gleaners. 
The  Shepherdess. 
The  Sheep  Shearer. 
The  Shepherd. 


xviii  MILLET 

The  Sheep  Fold. 

The  Potato  Planters. 

The  Potato  Harvest 

The  Angelas. 
Visit  to  Vichy  in  June. 
1867-69.     The  Pig  Killers. 

1868.     Millet  made  Chevalier  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  August 
13. 

Journey  with  Sensier  in  Alsace  and  Switzerland,  Sep- 
tember. 

1870.  Millet  elected,  March  24,  juror  for  coming  exposition. 

The  Woman  Churning  exhibited  at  the  Salon. 
Departure  for  GreVille  on  account  of  danger  of  re- 
maining in  Barbizon  during  the  war. 

1871.  Return  to  Barbizon  November  7. 

1874.  Order  from  Administration  of  Beaux  Arts  for  mural 

decorations  in  the  Panthe*on  (Ste.  Genevieve),  Paris. 
The  Priory  painted. 

1875.  Death  of  Millet,  January  20,  at  Barbizon. 

V.    SOME  OF  MILLET'S  ASSOCIATES 

Companions  in  the  studio  of  Delaroche  :  — 
Charles  Francois  Hubert  (1817-         ). 
Jalabert  (1819-         ). 
Thomas  Couture  (1815-1879). 
Edouard  Frere  (1819-1886). 
Adolphe  Yvon  (1817-        ). 
Antigna  (1818-1878). 
Prosper  Louis  Roux  (1817-        ). 
Marolle. 

Cavalier,  sculptor. 
Gendron  (1817-1881). 

Friends  and  neighbors  in  Paris :  — 
Couture  (also  fellow  student  in  studio  of  Delaroche)* 
Tourneaux  (1809-1867),  painter  and  poet. 
Diaz  (1808-1876),  landscape  painter. 


INTRODUCTION 

Joseph  Guichard  (1836-1877),  marine  painter. 
Charles  Jacque  (1813-         ),  etcher. 
Campre'don. 

Se'chan,     )     . 

-r^  A.    i      r  clever  scene  painters. 

Didterle,  j 

Eugene  Lacoste. 
Azevddo,  musical  critic. 

Friends  at  Barbizon  :  — 

Charles  Jacque  (who  removed  thither  with  him). 
Diaz  (also  a  friend  of  the  Paris  days). 
Corot  (1796-1875). 
Theodore  Rousseau  (1812-1867). 
Laure  (1806-1861). 
William  Morris  Hunt, 
Mr.  Hearn, 

Mr.  Babcock, 

'•&  j       j  THTI.    i     •  t«.   r  American  painters. 

Edward  Wheelwright,  f 

Wyatt  Eaton, 
WiU  Low, 


ri* 


GOING   TO   WORK 

ON  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  where  the 
sea  forms  a  narrow  channel  separating  the  British 
Isles  from  the  European  continent,  lies  that  part  of 
France  known  as  the  old  province  of  Normandy. 
There  is  here  a  very  dangerous  and  precipitous  coast 
lined  with  granite  cliffs.  The  villages  along  the 
sea  produce  a  hardy  race  of  peasants  who  make 
bold  fishermen  on  the  water  and  thrifty  farmers  on 
the  land. 

To  this  Norman  peasant  stock  belonged  Jean 
Francois  Millet,  the  painter  of  the  pictures  repro- 
duced in  this  little  book.  He  was  brought  up  to 
hard  out-of-door  labor  on  his  father's  farm  in  the 
village  of  Greville,  but  when  the  artistic  impulses 
within  him  could  no  longer  be  repressed,  he  left  his 
home  to  study  art.  Though  he  became  a  famous 
painter,  he  always  remained  at  heart  a  true  peasant. 
He  set  up  his  home  and  his  studio  in  a  village 
called  Barbizon,  near  the  Forest  of  Fontainebleau, 
not  many  miles  from  Paris.  Here  he  devoted  all 
his  gifts  to  illustrating  the  life  of  the  tillers  of 
the  soil.  His  subjects  were  drawn  both  from  his 
immediate  surroundings  and  from  the  recollections 
of  his  youth.  "  Since  I  have  never  in  all  my  life 


2  MILLET 

known  anything  but  the  fields,"  he  said,  "  I  try  to 
say,  as  best  I  can,  what  I  saw  and  felt  when  I 
worked  there."  It  is  now  a  quarter  of  a  century 
since  the  painter's  life  work  ended,  and  in  these 
years  some  few  changes  have  been  made  in  the  cus- 
toms and  costumes  which  Millet's  pictures  repre- 
sented. Such  changes,  however,  are  only  outward ; 
the  real  life  of  peasant  labor  is  always  the  same. 
Seedtime  and  harvest,  toil,  weariness  and  rest,  the 
ties  of  home  and  of  religion,  are  subjects  which 
never  grow  old  fashioned. 

In  France  the  farm  labors  are  shared  by  men  and 
women  alike.  The  peasant  woman  is  sturdily  built, 
and  her  healthy  out-of-door  life  makes  her  very 
strong.  She  is  fitted  by  nature  and  training  to 
work  beside  the  men  in  the  fields.  In  our  first  pic- 
ture we  see  a  young  man  and  woman  starting  out 
together  for  the  day's  work. 

It  is  morning,  and  the  early  sun  illumines  the 
distant  plain,  where  ploughing  has  already  begun. 
The  light  falls  on  the  two  figures  as  they  walk 
down  the  sloping  hillside. 

They  are  dressed  for  their  work  in  clothing  which 
is  plain  and  coarse,  but  which  is  perfectly  suited  for 
the  purpose.  The  French  peasants'  working  clothes 
are  usually  of  strong  homespun  cloth,  fashioned  in 
the  simplest  way,  to  give  the  wearers  entire  ease  in 
motion.  They  are  in  the  dull  blues,  browns,  and 
reds  which  delight  the  artist's  eye.  Such  colors 
grow  softer  and  more  beautiful  as  they  fade,  so  that 


From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun,  Clement  &  Co 


GOING  TO  WORK 


GOING  TO  WORK  5 

garments  of  this  kind  are  none  the  less  attractive 
for  being  old.  Ragged  clothing  is  seldom  seen 
among  peasants.  They  are  too  thrifty  and  self- 
respecting  to  make  an  untidy  appearance. 

The  men  wear  soft  felt  hats,  the  brim  of  which 
can  be  pulled  forward  to  shade  the  eyes.  The 
women  cover  their  heads  neatly  with  caps  or  ker- 
chiefs, and  are  nearly  always  seen  with  aprons. 
Men  and  women  both  wear  the  heavy  wooden  shoes 
called  sabots,  in  which  the  feet  suffer  no  pressure 
as  from  leather  shoes,  and  are  protected  against  the 
moisture  of  the  ground. 

The  peasants  of  our  picture  carry  all  they  need 
for  the  day's  work.  A  three-pronged  fork  rests 
across  the  man's  shoulder,  and  a  short-handled  hoe 
hangs  on  his  left  arm.  The  woman  has  a  basket, 
a  linen  sack,  and  a  bit  of  rope.  Evidently  some- 
thing is  to  be  brought  home.  Just  now  she  has 
swung  the  empty  basket  up  over  her  shoulders  and 
it  covers  her  head  like  a  huge  sunbonnet. 

The  two  young  people  are  full  of  the  healthy 
vigor  which  makes  work  a  pleasure.  They  go 
cheerfully  to  their  day's  task  as  if  they  really  en- 
joyed it.  We  cannot  help  suspecting  that  they  are 
lovers.  The  man  carries  himself  erect  with  a  con- 
scious air  of  manliness,  and  steps  briskly,  with  his 
hand  thrust  into  his  pocket.  The  girl  hides  her 
shyness  in  the  shadow  of  the  basket  as  she  turns 
her  face  towards  his.  The  two  swing  along  buoy- 
antly, keeping  step  as  if  accustomed  to  walking  to- 
gether. 


6  MILLET 

At  the  close  of  the  day's  work  the  basket  and  sack 
will  be  filled,  and  the  laborers  will  return  to  their 
home  by  the  same  way.  The  burden  may  be  heavy, 
but  they  will  bear  it  as  the  reward  of  their  toil. 

The  picture  of  Going  to  Work  was  painted  at 
about  the  same  time 1  as  the  The  Sower,  which 
forms  one  of  the  later  illustrations  of  our  collection. 
A  comparison  of  the  pictures  will  show  interesting 
points  of  resemblance  between  the  two  men  striding 
down  hill.  Though  Going  to  Work  is  not  as  a  work 
of  art  of  equal  rank  with  The  Sower,  we  get  in  both 
pictures  a  delightful  sense  of  motion  which  makes 
the  figures  seem  actually  alive. 

1  That  is,  within  a  year.    See  dates  in  the  Historical  Directory. 


II 

THE    KNITTING   LESSON 

IN  the  picture  we  have  been  examining  we  have 
seen  something  of  the  outdoor  life  of  the  French 
peasants,  and  now  we  are  shown  the  interior  of  one 
of  their  houses,  where  a  Knitting  Lesson  is  being 
given.  The  girls  of  the  French  peasantry  are 
taught  only  the  plainest  kinds  of  needlework.  They 
have  to  begin  to  make  themselves  useful  very  early 
in  lif  e,  and  knitting  is  a  matter  of  special  importance. 
In  these  large  families  many  pairs  of  stockings  are 
needed,  and  all  must  be  homemade.  This  is  work 
which  the  little  girls  can  do  while  the  mother  is 
busy  with  heavier  labors.  The  knitting  work  be- 
comes a  girl's  constant  companion,  and  there  are  few 
moments  when  her  hands  are  idle. 

The  little  girl  in  our  picture  is  still  a  beginner  in 
the  art,  and  the  lesson  is  a  very  exciting  occasion  to 
her.  Already  she  feels  like  a  woman. 

The  mother  and  daughter  have  their  chairs  by 
the  window  to  get  a  good  light  on  the  work.  It  is 
a  large  and  beautiful  casement  window,  of  the  kind 
almost  universal  in  France,  opening  lengthwise  in 
the  middle  in  two  parts  which  swing  on  hinges  like 
doors.  The  window  seat  serves  as  a  table,  to  hold 
the  basket  and  scissors.  The  doll  is  thrust  into 


8  MILLET 

the  corner  ;  our  little  girl  has  "  put  away  childish 
things  "  —  at  least  for  the  moment,  —  and  takes 
her  task  very  seriously. 

The  two  chairs  are  drawn  close  together,  the  one 
a  small  counterpart  of  the  other.  The  child  braces 
her  feet  firmly  on  one  of  the  rounds  and  bends  her 
whole  mind  to  her  work.  Both  mother  and  daugh- 
ter wear  close  white  caps,  though  the  little  girl's  is 
of  a  more  childish  pattern  and  does  not  cover  her 
pretty  hair  in  front. 

The  mother  has  been  sewing  on  some  large 
garment  which  lies  across  her  lap.  She  lets  the 
little  girl  work  by  herself  for  a  time,  and  then  stops 
to  set  her  right.  Already  a  considerable  length  of 
stocking  has  been  made,  but  this  is  a  place  where 
close  attention  is  needed.  Perhaps  it  is  time  to 
begin  shaping  the  heel.  The  mother's  work  is  left 
altogether  for  a  moment.  Putting  her  arm  about 
the  child's  shoulder,  she  takes  the  two  little  hands 
in  hers,  and  guides  the  fingers  holding  the  needles. 

We  get  some  idea  of  the  quaint  style  of  the 
building  from  this  glimpse  of  the  living-room. 
Probably  it  is  a  low  stone  cottage  with  thatched  or 
tiled  roof.  The  deep  window  seat  shows  how  thick 
the  walls  are.  Overhead  we  see  the  oak  rafters. 

The  room  looks  spotlessly  clean,  as  a  good  house- 
wife's should.  Though  we  see  only  a  corner,  that 
corner  holds  the  most  precious  household  possession, 
the  linen  chest.  It  stands  against  the  wall,  and 
is  of  generous  size.  French  country  people  take 


carbon  print  by  liraun,  Clement  &  Co. 

THE  KNITTING  LESSON 


John  Andrew  &  Son,  So. 


THE  KNITTING  LESSON  11 

great  pride  in  storing  up  a  quantity  of  linen ;  table- 
cloths, sheets,  shirts,  pillowcases,  often  of  their  own 
weaving,  are  piled  in  the  deep  clothes-presses.  In 
well-to-do  families  there  are  enough  for  six  months' 
use,  the  family  washing  taking  place  only  twice  a 
year,  in  spring  and  fall,  like  house-cleaning  in 
America.  We  judge  that  our  housekeeper  is  well 
provided,  by  the  pile  of  neatly  folded  sheets  on  the 
press.  The  little  clock,  high  on  the  wall,  and  the 
vase  of  flowers  on  the  chest  are  the  only  touches  of 
ornament  in  the  room.  On  the  wall  are  some  small 
objects  which  look  like  shuttles  for  weaving. 

As  we  look  at  the  picture  we  feel  sure  that  Mil- 
let was  a  lover  of  children,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  know 
that  he  had  many  of  his  own.  The  artist  father  was 
his  children's  favorite  playmate,  and  at  the  close  of 
his  day's  work  in  his  studio,  they  ran  to  meet  him 
with  shouts  of  joy.  He  used  to  like  to  walk  about 
the  garden  with  them  showing  them  the  flowers.  In 
winter  time  they  sat  together  by  the  fire,  and  the 
father  sang  songs  and  drew  pictures  for  the  little 
ones.  Sometimes  taking  a  log  from  the  wood  bas- 
ket he  would  carve  a  doll  out  of  it,  and  paint  the 
cheeks  with  vermilion.  This  is  the  sort  of  doll  we 
see  on  the  window  seat  in  our  picture. 

Ruskin  tells  us  that  a  true  artist  feels  like  a  caged 
bird  in  painting  any  enclosed  space,  unless  it  con- 
tains some  opening  like  a  door  or  window.  No 
amount  of  beauty  will  content  us,  he  says,  if  we  are 
shut  in  to  that  alone.  Our  picture  is  a  good  proof 


12  MILLET 

of  this  principle.  We  can  easily  fancy  how  differ- 
ent the  effect  would  be  without  the  window :  the 
room  would  appear  almost  like  a  prisoner's  cell. 
As  it  is,  the  great  window  suggests  the  out-of-door 
world  into  which  it  opens,  and  gives  us  a  sense  of 
larger  space. 

Our  illustration  is  taken  from  a  drawing.  Mil- 
let was  a  painstaking  artist  who  made  many  draw- 
ings and  studies  for  his  paintings.  This  is  probably 
such  a  study,  as  there  is  also  a  painting  by  him  of 
the  same  subject  very  similar  to  this. 


Ill 

THE  POTATO  PLANTERS 

IN  the  picture  called  The  Potato  Planters  we  are 
reminded  at  once  of  the  peasants  we  have  already 
seen  in  Going  to  Work.  We  see  here  married  peo- 
ple a  few  years  older  than  the  young  people  of  the 
other  picture  working  together  in  the  fields. 

It  may  be  that  this  is  their  own  little  plot  of 
ground,  for  they  work  with  a  certain  air  of  proprie- 
torship. They  look  prosperous,  too,  and  are  some- 
what better  dressed  than  common  laborers.  It  is 
the  highest  ambition  of  the  French  peasant  to  own 
a  bit  of  land.  He  will  make  any  sacrifice  to  get  it, 
and  possessing  it,  is  well  content.  He  labors  with 
constant  industry  to  make  it  yield  well. 

The  field  here  is  at  quite  a  distance  from  the  vil- 
lage where  the  workers  live.  We  can  see  the  little 
group  of  houses  on  the  horizon.  In  France  the 
agricultural  classes  do  not  build  their  dwelling- 
houses  on  their  farms,  but  live  instead  in  village 
communities,  with  the  farms  in  the  outlying  dis- 
tricts. The  custom  has  many  advantages.  The 
families  may  help  one  another  in  various  ways  both 
by  joining  forces  and  exchanging  services.  They 
may  also  share  in  common  the  use  of  church,  school, 
and  post  office.  This  French  farming  system  has 


14  MILLET 

been  adopted  in  Canada,  while  in  our  own  country 
we  follow  the  English  custom  of  building  isolated 
farmhouses. 

In  working  season  the  French  farmer  must  go 
daily  to  his  labor  at  a  distance.  The  people  in  our 
picture  are  fortunate  enough  to  own  a  donkey 
which  is  their  burden-bearer  between  house  and 
field.  The  strong  little  creature  can  carry  a  heavy 
load  properly  disposed  in  pannier  baskets.  The 
panniers  are  made  very  deep  and  wide,  but  rather 
flat,  so  as  to  fit  the  sides  of  the  donkey.  With  one 
of  these  hanging  on  each  side  of  the  saddle,  the 
weight  of  the  burden  is  so  well  distributed  that  it  is 
easily  borne. 

The  donkey  of  our  picture  has  been  relieved  of 
his  panniers,  and  now  rests  in  the  shade  of  some 
apple-trees.  One  of  the  baskets  is  in  the  mean  time 
put  to  a  novel  use.  Made  soft  and  warm  with  a 
heavy  cloak,  it  forms  a  nice  cradle  for  the  baby. 
The  babies  in  French  peasant  families  are  often 
left  at  home  with  the  grandmother,  while  the  mo- 
ther goes  out  to  field  work.  The  painter  Millet 
himself  was  in  childhood  the  special  charge  of  his 
grandmother,  while  his  mother  labored  on  the  farm. 
The  people  of  our  picture  have  another  and,  as 
it  seems,  a  much  pleasanter  plan,  in  going  to  the 
field  as  a  family  party. 

The  day  is  well  advanced  and  the  work  goes 
steadily  on.  It  is  potato  planting,  and  the  potato 
crop  is  of  great  importance  to  country  people,  sec- 


THE  POTATO  PLANTERS  17 

ond  perhaps  to  the  wheat,  as  it  supplies  food  to 
both  man  and  beast.  The  commoner  varieties,  as 
the  large  white,  are  raised  for  cattle,  and  the  finer 
and  sweeter  kinds,  the  red  and  the  yellow,  are  kept 
for  the  table. 

The  laborer  and  his  wife  move  along  the  field, 
facing  each  other  on  opposite  sides  of  the  row  they 
are  planting.  The  man  turns  the  sod  with  his  hoe, 
a  short-handled  tool  which  long  practice  has  taught 
him  to  use  skilfully.  The  wife  carries  the  potato 
seed  in  her  apron,  and  as  her  husband  lifts  each 
spadeful  of  earth,  she  throws  the  seed  into  the  hole 
thus  made.  He  holds  the  hoe  suspended  a  mo- 
ment while  the  seed  drops  in,  and  then  replaces  the 
earth  over  it.  The  two  work  in  perfect  unison, 
each  following  the  other's  motion  with  mechanical 
regularity,  as  they  move  down  the  field  together. 

The  two  who  work  so  well  together  in  the  field 
are  sure  to  work  well  together  in  the  home.  The 
man  has  the  serious,  capable  look  of  a  provident 
husband.  The  woman  looks  like  a  good  housewife. 
That  shapely  hand  throwing  the  seed  so  deftly  into 
the  ground  is  well  adapted  to  domestic  tasks. 

We  may  easily  identify  our  picture  as  a  familiar 
scene  in  Millet's  Barbizon  surroundings.  We  are 
told  that  "  upon  all  sides  of  Barbizon,  save  one,  the 
plain  stretches  almost  literally  as  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach,"  and  presents  "  a  generally  level  and  open 
surface."  "  There  are  no  isolated  farmhouses,  and 
no  stone  walls,  fences,  or  hedges,  except  immediately 


18  MILLET 


around  the  villages ;  and  were  it  not  all  under  culti- 
vation, the  plain  might  be  taken  for  a  vast  com- 


mon." l 


It  is  evident,  then,  that  we  here  see  the  plain  of 
Barbizon  and  true  Barbizon  peasants  of  Millet's 
day.  The  villagers  of  the  painter's  acquaintance 
were  on  the  whole  a  prosperous  class,  nearly  all 
owning  their  houses  and  a  few  acres  of  ground. 
The  big  apple-tree  under  which  the  donkey  rests 
is  just  such  an  one  as  grew  in  Millet's  own  little 
garden. 

Fruit  trees  were  his  peculiar  delight.  He  knew 
all  their  ways,  and  "  all  their  special  twists  and  turn- 
ings ; "  how  the  leaves  of  the  apple-tree  are  bunched 
together  on  their  twigs,  and  how  the  roots  spread 
under  ground.  "  Any  artist,"  he  used  to  say, 
"  can  go  to  the  East  and  paint  a  palm-tree,  but 
very  few  can  paint  an  apple-tree." 

1  From  Edward  Wheelwright's  Recollections  of  Jean  Francois 
Millet,  in  Atlantic  Monthly,  September,  1876. 


IV 

THE   WOMAN    SEWING    BY    LAMPLIGHT 

THOUGH  the  peasant  women  of  France  have  so 
large  a  share  in  the  laborious  out-of-door  work  on 
the  farms,  they  are  not  unfitted  for  domestic  duties. 
In  the  long  winter  evenings  they  devote  themselves 
to  more  distinctly  woman's  tasks,  knitting  and  sew- 
ing, sometimes  even  spinning  and  weaving.  Their 
housekeeping  is  very  simple,  for  they  live  frugally, 
but  they  know  how  to  make  the  home  comfortable. 
Many  modern  inventions  are  still  unknown  to  them, 
and  we  should  think  their  customs  very  primitive, 
but  on  this  account  they  are  perhaps  even  more  pic- 
turesque. 

There  is  contentment  in  every  line  of  the  face  of 
this  Woman  Sewing  by  Lamplight.  It  is  the  face 
of  a  happy  young  wife  and  mother.  She  sits  close 
by  her  baby's  bedside  that  she  may  listen  to  his 
gentle  breathing  as  he  sleeps,  and  she  smiles  softly 
to  herself  while  she  sews.  It  is  a  sweet  face  which 
bends  over  the  work,  and  it  is  framed  in  the  dainti- 
est of  white  caps  edged  with  a  wide  ruffle  which  is 
turned  back  over  the  hair  above  the  forehead,  that 
it  may  not  shade  her  eyes. 

The  garment  that  lies  on  her  lap  is  of  some  coarse 
heavy  material.  No  dainty  bit  of  fancy  work  is 


20  MILLET 

this,  but  a  plain  piece  of  mending.  It  may  be  the 
long  cloak  which  the  shepherd  wraps  about  him  in 
cold  and  stormy  weather.  Made  from  the  wool 
grown  on  his  own  sheep,  spun  by  his  wife's  own 
hand,  it  is  unrivalled  among  manufactured  cloths 
for  warmth  and  comfort.  The  needle  is  threaded 
with  a  coarse  thread  of  wool,  which  the  sewer  draws 
deftly  through  the  cloth. 

On  a  pole  which  runs  from  floor  to  ceiling  is  a 
hook,  from  which  a  lamp  is  suspended  by  a  chain. 
This  lamp  appears  to  be  a  boat-shaped  vessel  with 
the  wick  coming  out  at  one  end.  The  light  gilds 
the  mother's  gentle  profile  with  shining  radiance ; 
it  illumines  the  fingers  of  her  right  hand,  and  gleams 
on  the  coarse  garment  in  her  lap,  transforming  it 
into  a  cloth  of  gold. 

The  baby  meanwhile  lies  on  the  other  side  of  the 
lamp  in  the  shadow.  His  little  mouth  is  open,  and 
he  is  fast  asleep.  We  can  almost  fancy  that  the 
mother  croons  a  lullaby  as  she  sews.  There  is  a 
pathetic  little  French  song  called  La  Petite  Helene, 
which  Millet's  mother  used  to  sing  to  him,  and  which 
he  in  turn  taught  his  own  children.  Perhaps  we 
could  not  understand  the  words  if  we  could  hear  it. 
But  when  mothers  sing  to  their  babies,  whatever 
the  tongue  in  which  they  speak,  they  use  a  common 
language  of  motherhood.  Some  such  simple  little 
lullaby  as  this,  which  mothers  of  another  land  sing 
to  their  babes,  would  doubtless  interpret  this  mo- 
ther's thoughts :  — 


From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun,  Clement  &  Co. 


John  Andrew  &  Son,  So. 


THE  WOMAN  SEWING  BY 


£ 


THE  WOMAN  SEWING  BY  LAMPLIGHT  23 

"  Sleep,  baby,  sleep  ! 
Thy  father  watches  the  sheep  ; 
Thy  mother  is  shaking  the  dreamland  tree, 
And  down  comes  a  little  dream  on  thee. 
Sleep,  baby,  sleep  ! 

"Sleep,  baby,  sleep  ! 
The  large  stars  are  the  sheep  ; 
The  little  ones  are  the  lambs,  I  guess  : 
The  gentle  moon  is  the  shepherdess, 
Sleep,  baby,  sleep ! 

"  Sleep,  baby,  sleep  ! 
Our  Saviour  loves  his  sheep  ; 
He  is  the  Lamb  of  God  on  high 
Who  for  our  sakes  came  down  to  die. 
Sleep,  baby,  sleep  ! " 

When  we  remember  that  the  ancient  Romans 
had  lamps  constructed  somewhat  like  that  in  the 
picture,  it  seems  strange  that  so  rude  a  contrivance 
should  be  in  use  in  the  nineteenth  century.  But 
this  is  only  the  practical  and  prosaic  side  of  the 
question.  For  artistic  purposes  the  lamp  is  just 
what  is  wanted  in  the  composition. 

You  can  see  how  a  lamp  with  a  glass  chimney 
and  shade  would  spoil  the  whole  effect.  We  should 
lose  that  strange  beautiful  halo  surrounding  the 
wick,  and  the  light  would  fall  only  on  the  work,  in- 
stead of  glorifying  the  face  of  the  mother.  These 
wonderful  impressions  of  light  add  much  to  the 
artistic  beauty  of  the  picture,  and  explain  why 
artists  have  so  greatly  admired  it. 

The  picture  naturally  recalls  that  other  Mother 
and  Babe,  Mary  of  Nazareth  and  the  holy  Child 


24  MILLET 

Jesus,  who  for  so  many  centuries  have  inspired  the 
imagination  of  artists.  Often  a  painter  has  drawn 
his  first  conception  for  this  sacred  subject  from 
some  peasant  mother  and  child  such  as  these. 

In  order  to  give  religious  significance  to  their 
pictures,  artists  have  tried  in  many  ways  to  suggest 
the  supernatural.  They  have  introduced  halos 
about  the  heads  of  Mary  and  Jesus,  and  have  made 
the  light  seem  to  shine  mysteriously  from  the  child's 
body.  Now  our  painter  Millet,  representing  only  an 
ordinary  mother  and  babe,  has  not  used  any  such 
methods.  Nevertheless,  without  going  beyond  strict 
reality,  he  has  produced  a  mystical  effect  of  light 
which  makes  this  picture  worthy  of  a  place  among 
the  Madonnas.  The  glow  of  the  lamp  transforms 
the  familiar  scene  into  a  shrine  of  mother's  love. 


THE  SHEPHERDESS 

MANY  years  ago  the  early  English  poet,  Sir  Philip 
Sidney,  wrote  a  book  about  an  imaginary  country 
called  Arcadia,  noted  for  the  sweetness  of  the  air 
and  the  gentle  manners  of  the  people.  As  he  de- 
scribed the  beauties  of  the  scenery  there,  he  told  of 
"  meadows  enamelled  with  all  sorts  of  eye-pleasing 
flowers ;  each  pasture  stored  with  sheep  feeding 
with  sober  security ;  here  a  shepherd's  boy  piping 
as  though  he  should  never  be  old ;  there  a  young 
shepherdess  knitting  and  withal  singing,  and  it 
seemed  that  her  voice  comforted  her  hands  to  work, 
and  her  hands  kept  time  to  her  voice-music." 

We  could  easily  fancy  that  our  picture  of  the 
Shepherdess  was  meant  to  illustrate  a  scene  in  Ar- 
cadia. Here  is  the  meadow  "enamelled  with  eye- 
pleasing  flowers,"  the  sheep  "  feeding  with  sober 
security,"  and  the  young  shepherdess  herself  knit- 
ting. Though  she  is  not  singing  with  her  lips,  her 
heart  sings  softly  as  she  knits,  and  her  hands  keep 
time  to  the  dream-music. 

Early  in  the  morning  she  led  her  flock  out  to  the 
fallow  pastures  which  make  good  grazing  ground. 
All  day  long  the  sheep  have  nibbled  the  green  herb- 
age at  their  own  sweet  will,  always  under  the  watch' 


26  MILLET 

ful  eye  of  their  gentle  guardian.  Her  hands  have 
been  busy  all  the  time.  Like  patient  Griselda  in 
Chaucer's  poem,  who  did  her  spinning  while  she 
watched  her  sheep,  "  she  would  not  have  been  idle 
till  she  slept."  Ever  since  she  learned  at  her  mo- 
ther's knee  those  early  lessons  in  knitting,  she  has 
kept  the  needles  flying.  She  can  knit  perfectly 
well  now  while  she  follows  her  flock  about.  The 
work  almost  knits  itself  while  her  eyes  and  thoughts 
are  engaged  in  other  occupations. 

The  little  shepherdess  has  an  assistant  too,  who 
shares  the  responsibilities  of  her  task.  He  is  a 
small  black  dog,  "patient  and  full  of  importance 
and  grand  in  the  pride  of  his  instinct."  l  When  a 
sheep  is  tempted  by  an  enticing  bit  of  green  in  the 
distance  to  stray  from  its  companions,  the  dog 
quickly  bounds  after  the  runaway  and  drives  it 
back  to  the  flock.  Only  the  voice  of  the  shep- 
herdess is  needed  to  send  him  hither,  thither,  and 
yon  on  such  errands. 

Now  nightfall  comes,  and  it  is  time  to  lead  the 
flock  home  to  the  sheepfold.  The  sheep  are  gath- 
ered into  a  compact  mass,  the  ram  in  their  midst. 
The  shepherdess  leads  the  way,  and  the  dog  re- 
mains at  the  rear,  "  walking  from  side  to  side  with 
a  lordly  air,"  to  allow  no  wanderer  to  escape. 

Their  way  lies  across  the  plain  whose  level  stretch 
is  unbroken  by  fences  or  buildings.  In  the  dis- 
tance men  may  be  seen  loading  a  wagon  with  hay. 

1  Like  the  watchdog  described  in  Longfellow's  Evanyeliney  Fart  IL 


THE  SHEPHERDESS  29 

The  sheep  still  keep  on  nibbling  as  they  go,  and 
their  progress  is  slow.  The  shepherdess  takes  time 
to  stop  and  rest  now  and  then,  propping  her  staff 
in  front  of  her  while  she  picks  up  a  stitch  dropped 
in  her  knitting.  There  is  a  sense  of  perfect  still- 
ness in  the  air,  that  calm  silence  of  the  fields, 
which  Millet  once  said  was  the  gayest  thing  he 
knew  in  nature. 

The  chill  of  nightfall  is  beginning  to  be  felt,  and 
the  shepherdess  wears  a  hood  and  cape.  Her  face 
shows  her  to  be  a  dreamer.  These  long  days  in  the 
open  air  give  her  many  visions  to  dream  of.  Her 
companionship  with  dumb  creatures  makes  her  more 
thoughtful,  perhaps,  than  many  girls  of  her  age. 

As  a  good  shepherdess  she  knows  her  sheep  well 
enough  to  call  them  all  by  name.  From  their  soft 
wool  was  woven  her  warm  cape  and  hood,  and  there 
is  a  genuine  friendship  between  flock  and  mistress. 
When  she  goes  before  them,  they  follow  her,  for 
they  know  her  voice. 

Among  the  traditions  dear  to  the  hearts  of  the 
French  people  is  one  of  a  saintly  young  shepherdess 
of  Nanterre,  known  as  Ste.  Genevieve.  Like  the 
shepherdess  of  our  picture,  she  was  a  dreamer,  and 
her  strange  visions  and  wonderful  sanctity  set  her 
apart  from  childhood  for  a  great  destiny.  She 
grew  up  to  be  the  saviour  of  Paris,  and  to-day  her 
name  is  honored  in  a  fine  church  dedicated  to  her 
memory.  It  was  the  crowning  honor  of  Millet's 
life  that  he  was  commissioned  to  paint  on  the  walls 


30  MILLET 

of  this  church  scenes  from  the  life  of  Ste.  Genevieve. 
He  did  not  live  to  do  the  work,  but  one  cannot  help 
believing  that  his  ideals  of  the  maiden  of  Nanterre 
must  have  taken  some  such  shape  as  this  picture  of 
the  Shepherdess. 

In  the  painting  from  which  our  illustration  is  re- 
produced, the  colors  are  rich  and  glowing.  The 
girl's  dress  is  blue  and  her  cap  a  bright  red.  The 
light  shining  on  her  cloak  turns  it  a  rich  golden 
brown.  Earth  and  sky  are  glorified  by  the  beauti- 
ful sunset  light. 

As  we  look  across  the  plain,  the  earth  seems  to 
stretch  away  on  every  side  into  infinite  distance. 
We  are  carried  out  of  ourselves  into  the  boundless 
liberty  of  God's  great  world.  "  The  still  small 
voice  of  the  level  twilight "  speaks  to  us  out  of  the 
"  calm  and  luminous  distance." 

Ruskin  has  sought  to  explain  the  strange  attrac- 
tive power  which  luminous  space  has  for  us.  "  There 
is  one  thing  that  it  has,  or  suggests,"  he  says, 
"  which  no  other  object  of  sight  suggests  in  equal 
degree,  and  that  is,  —  Infinity.  It  is  of  all  visible 
things  the  least  material,  the  least  finite,  the  far- 
thest withdrawn  from  the  earth  prison-house,  the 
most  typical  of  the  nature  of  God,  the  most  sugges- 
tive of  the  glory  of  his  dwelling  place." 1 

1  In  Modern  Painters,  in  chapter  on  "  Infinity,"  from  which  also 
the  other  quotations  are  drawn. 


VI 

THE    WOMAN    FEEDING   HENS 

IN  walking  through  a  French  village,  we  get  as 
little  idea  of  the  home  life  of  the  people  as  if  we 
were  in  a  large  town  or  city.  The  houses  usually 
border  directly  upon  the  street,  and  the  spaces  be- 
tween are  closed  with  high  walls,  shutting  in  the 
thoroughfare  as  completely  as  in  a  city  "  block." 
Behind  these  barriers  each  family  carries  on  its  do- 
mestic affairs  in  the  privacy  of  its  own  domain. 
The  cour,  or  dooryard,  is  the  enclosure  adjoining 
the  house,  and  is  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  build- 
ings or  walls.  Beyond  this  the  more  prosperous 
have  also  a  garden  or  orchard,  likewise  surrounded 
by  high  walls. 

In  the  dooryard  are  performed  many  of  the 
duties  both  of  the  barn  and  the  house.  Here  the 
cows  are  milked,  the  horses  groomed,  the  sheep 
sheared,  and  the  poultry  fed.  Here,  too,  is  the 
children's  playground,  safe  from  the  dangers  of 
the  street,  and  within  hearing  of  the  mother's  voice. 

It  is  into  such  a  dooryard  that  we  seem  to  be 
looking  in  this  picture  of  The  Woman  Feeding 
Hens.  It  is  a  common  enough  little  house  which 
we  see,  built  of  stone,  plastered  over,  in  the  fashion 
of  the  French  provinces,  and  very  low.  In  the 


32  MILLET 

long  wall  from  the  door  to  the  garden  gate  is  only 
one  small  high  window.  But  time  and  nature  have 
done  much  to  beautify  the  spot.  In  the  cracks  of 
the  roof,  thatched  or  tiled,  whichever^it  may  be, 
many  a  vagrant  seed  has  found  lodgment.  The 
weeds  have  grown  up  in  profusion  to  cover  the  bare 
little  place  with  leaf  and  flower.  Indeed,  there  is 
here  a  genuine  roof  garden  of  the  prettiest  sort, 
and  it  extends  along  the  stone  wall  separating  the 
dooryard  from  the  garden.  Some  one  who  has 
seen  these  vine-fringed  walls  in  Barbizon  describes 
them  as  gay  with  "purple  orris,  stonecrop,  and 
pellitory." 

A  young  wife  presides  in  the  little  cottage  home 
and  rules  her  side  of  the  dooryard  with  gentle  sway. 
She  has  a  curly-haired  baby  boy  who  creeps  after 
her  as  she  goes  about  her  work.  His  inquiring 
mind  is  at  this  age  investigating  all  the  corners  of 
the  house,  and  before  long  he  will  be  the  young 
master  of  the  dooryard. 

The  housewife  boasts  a  small  brood  of  hens. 
Early  in  the  morning  the  voice  of  the  chanticleer  is 
heard  greeting  the  dawn.  Presently  he  leads  his 
family  forth  to  begin  their  day's  scratching  in  the 
dooryard.  Here  and  there  they  wander  with  con- 
tented clucks,  as  they  find  now  and  then  a  worm 
or  grub  for  a  titbit.  But  it  is  only  a  poor  living 
which  is  to  be  earned  by  scratching.  The  thrifty 
housewife  sees  to  it  that  her  brood  are  well  fed. 
At  regular  times  she  comes  out  of  the  house  to  feed 
them  with  grain,  as  she  is  doing  now. 


From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun,  Clement  &  Co. 

THE  WOMAN  FEEDING  HENS 


John  Andrew  &  Son,  So. 


THE  WOMAN  FEEDING  HENS  35 

The  baby  hears  the  mother's  voice  saying,  in  what 
is  the  French  equivalent,  "  Here  chick-chick-chick," 
and  creeps  swiftly  to  the  door.  He,  too,  tries  to 
call  "  chick-chick."  He  watches  the  odd  creatures 
eagerly  as  they  gobble  up  the  seed.  They  stand 
about  in  a  circle,  heads  all  together  in  the  centre, 
bobbing  up  and  down  as  long  as  any  food  remains. 
Chanticleer  holds  back  with  true  gallantry,  and  with 
an  air  of  masculine  superiority.  The  belated  mem- 
bers of  the  brood  come  running  up  as  fast  as  they 
can.  The  apron  holds  a  generous  supply,  so  that 
there  is  enough  for  all,  but  the  housewife  doles  it 
out  prudently  by  the  handful,  that  none  may  suffer 
through  the  greediness  of  the  others. 

As  we  study  the  lines  of  the  picture  a  little,  they 
teach  us  some  important  lessons  in  composition. 
We  note  first  the  series  of  perpendicular  lines  at 
regular  intervals  across  the  width  of  the  picture. 
These  counterbalance  the  effect  of  the  long  per- 
spective which  is  so  skilfully  indicated  in  the 
drawing  of  the  house  and  the  garden  walk.  The 
perspective  is  secured  chiefly  by  three  converging 
lines,  the  roof  and  ground  lines  of  the  house,  and 
the  line  of  the  garden  walk.  These  lines  if  ex- 
tended would  meet  at  a  single  point. 

Once  more  let  us  recall  Ruskin's  teaching  in  re- 
gard to  enclosed  spaces.1  The  artist  is  unhappy 
if  shut  in  by  impenetrable  barriers.  There  must 
always  be,  he  says,  some  way  of  escape,  it  matters 

1  In  Modern  Painters  in  the  chapter  on  "  Infinity." 


36  MILLET 

not  by  how  narrow  a  path,  so  that  the  imagination 
may  have  its  liberty. 

This  is  the  principle  which  our  painter  has  ap- 
plied in  his  picture.  He  wisely  gives  us  a  glimpse 
of  the  sky  above,  and  shows  us  the  shady  vista  of 
the  garden  walk  leading  to  the  great  world  beyond. 

Our  illustration  is  from  a  charcoal  drawing,  which, 
like  the  Knitting  Lesson,  is  matched  by  a  corre- 
sponding painting. 


vn 

THE   ANGELUS 

THE  early  twilight  of  autumn  has  overtaken  two 
peasants  at  the  close  of  a  day's  work  in  the  field. 
They  are  gathering  the  potato  harvest.  The  dried 
plants  are  first  pulled  up,  and  the  potatoes  carefully 
dug  out  of  the  holes.  Then  the  vegetables  are 
taken  from  the  furrows  by  the  basketful,  and  poured 
into  brown  linen  sacks  to  be  carried  home  on  the 
wheelbarrow.  One  of  these  sacks  is  not  yet  quite 
full,  and  the  work  has  been  prolonged  after  sunset. 

The  field  is  a  long  way  from  the  village,  but  in 
the  still  air  sounds  are  carried  far  across  the  plain. 
Suddenly  the  bell  of  the  village  church  peals  forth. 
The  man  stops  digging  and  plunges  his  fork  into 
the  earth,  and  the  woman  hastily  rises  from  her 
stooping  posture.  The  Angelus  bell  is  ringing, 
and  it  calls  them  to  prayer. 

Three  times  each  day,  at  sunrise,  midday,  and 
sunset,  this  bell  reminds  the  world  of  the  birth  of 
Jesus  Christ.  The  strokes  are  rung  in  three  groups, 
corresponding  to  the  three  parts  of  The  Angelus, 
which  are  recited  in  turn.  The  first  word  gives 
the  bell  its  name,  —  Angelus,  the  Latin  for  angel. 

"  The  angel  of  the  Lord  announced  to  Mary, 
And  she  conceived  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 


38  MILLET 

"Behold  the  handmaid  of  the  Lord, 
Be  it  done  unto  me  according  to  thy  word. 

"  And  the  word  was  made  flesh 
And  dwelt  among  us." 

Thus  run  the  words  of  the  translation  in  the 
three  couplets  into  which  they  are  separated,  and 
then  this  prayer  is  added  :  "  We  beseech  thee,  O 
Lord,  pour  forth  thy  grace  into  our  hearts ;  that 
as  we  have  known  the  incarnation  of  thy  Son  Jesus 
Christ  by  the  message  of  an  angel,  so  by  his  cross 
and  passion  we  may  be  brought  into  the  glory  of 
his  resurrection,  through  the  same  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord." 

Besides  this,  after  each  couplet  of  the  Angelus, 
is  recited  that  short  hymn  of  praise,  beginning  with 
the  words  which  the  angel  of  the  annunciation  ad- 
dressed to  Mary,1  "  Ave  Maria."  This  is  why  the 
hour  after  sunset  is  so  often  called  the  hour  of  Ave 
Maria.  The  English  poet  Byron  has  written  of  this 
solemn  moment :  — 

"  Ave  Maria  !  blessed  be  the  hour  ! 
The  time,  the  clime,  the  spot,  where  I  so  oft 
Have  felt  that  moment  in  its  fullest  power 
Sink  o'er  the  earth  so  beautiful  and  soft, 
While  swung  the  deep  bell  in  the  distant  tower, 
Or  the  faint  dying  day-hymn  stole  aloft, 
And  not  a  breath  crept  through  the  rosy  air, 
And  yet  the  forest  leaves  seemed  stirred  with  prayer." 

The  atmosphere  of  prayer  pervades  the  picture. 
The   woman   stands  with  bowed  head  and  hands 
1  "  Hail  Mary  "  ;  see  St.  Luke,  chapter  i.,  verse  28. 


THE  ANGELUS  41 

clasped  over  her  breast.  Her  whole  body  sways 
slightly  forward  in  the  intensity  of  her  devotion. 
Her  husband  has  bared  his  head  and  holds  his  hat 
before  him.  Though  he  may  seem  somewhat  awk- 
ward, he  is  not  less  sincerely  reverent. 

The  sunset  light  shines  on  the  woman's  blue 
apron,  gilds  the  potato  sacks  in  the  wheelbarrow, 
and  gleams  along  the  furrows.  Farther  away,  the 
withered  plants  are  heaped  in  rows  of  little  piles. 
Beyond,  the  level  plain  stretches  to  meet  the  glow- 
ing sky,  and,  outlined  on  the  horizon,  is  the  spire  of 
the  church  where  the  bells  are  ringing. 

As  the  meaning  of  the  picture  grows  upon  us, 
we  can  almost  hear  the  ringing  of  the  bells.  In- 
deed, to  those  familiar  with  such  scenes  in  actual 
life,  the  impression  is  very  vivid.  The  friend  to 
whom  Millet  first  showed  his  painting  immediately 
exclaimed,  "  It  is  the  Angelus."  "  Then  you  can 
hear  the  bells,"  said  the  artist,  and  was  content. 

The  solemn  influence  of  the  picture  is  deepened 
by  the  effects  of  the  twilight  on  the  plains.  A  wide 
outlook  across  a  level  country,  like  a  view  of  the 
sea,  is  always  impressive,  but  it  has  peculiar  power 
in  the  vague  light  which  follows  the  sunset.  Many 
poetic  natures  have  felt  this  mystic  spell  of  the 
gloaming  as  it  descends  upon  the  plain.  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson  was  one  of  these,  and  upon  visiting 
Barbizon  he  described  vividly  his  feelings  at  such 
an  hour.  We  are  told  also  that  Millet  loved  to 
walk  abroad  at  nightfall  and  note  the  mysterious 


42  MILLET 

effects  of  the  twilight.  "It  is  astonishing,"  he 
once  said  to  his  brother  in  such  a  walk,  "  how  grand 
everything  on  the  plain  appears,  towards  the  ap- 
proach of  night,  especially  when  we  see  the  figures 
thrown  out  against  the  sky.  Then  they  look  like 
giants." 

In  nearly  all  of  Millet's  pictures  people  are  busy 
doing  something.  Either  hands  or  feet,  and  some- 
times both  hands  and  feet,  are  in  motion.  They 
are  pictures  of  action.  In  the  Angelus,  however, 
people  are  resting  from  labor ;  it  is  a  picture  of  re- 
pose. The  busy  hands  cease  their  work  a  moment, 
and  the  spirit  rises  in  prayer.  We  have  already 
seen,  in  other  pictures,  how  labor  may  be  lightened 
by  love.  Here  we  see  labor  glorified  by  piety. 

The  painting  of  the  Angelus  has  had  a  remarkable 
history.  The  patron  for  whom  it  was  first  intended 
was  disappointed  with  the  picture  when  finished,  and 
Millet  had  no  little  difficulty  in  finding  a  purchaser. 
In  the  course  of  time  it  became  one  of  the  most 
popular  works  of  the  painter,  and  is  probably  better 
known  in  our  country  than  any  other  of  his  pictures. 
In  1889  it  was  bought  by  an  American,  and  was 
carried  on  an  exhibition  tour  through  most  of  the 
large  cities  of  the  United  States.  Finally  it  re- 
turned to  France,  where  it  is  now  in  the  collection 
of  M.  Chauchard. 

The  Angelus  is  one  of  the  few  of  Millet's  works 
which  have  changed  with  time.  The  color  has 
grown  dark  and  the  canvas  has  cracked  somewhat, 
owing  to  the  use  of  bitumen  in  the  painting. 


vm 

FILLING   THE   WATER-BOTTLES 

THE  artist  Millet  loved  to  draw  as  well  as  to 
paint.  Black  and  white  pictures  had  their  charm 
for  him  as  truly  as  those  in  color.  Indeed,  he  once 
said  that  "  tone/'  which  is  the  most  important  part 
of  color,  can  be  perfectly  expressed  in  black  and 
white.  It  is  therefore  not  strange  that  he  made 
many  drawings.  Some  of  these,  like  the  Knitting 
Lesson  and  the  Woman  Feeding  Hens,  were,  as  we 
have  seen,  studies  for  paintings.  The  picture  called 
Filling  the  Water-Bottles  was,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  charcoal  drawing,  corresponding  to  no  similar 
painting.  It  is  in  itself  a  finished  work  of  art. 

It  is  a  typical  French  river  scene  which  we  see 
here,  and  it  gives  us  an  idea  how  large  a  part  a 
river  may  take  in  the  life  of  French  country  peo- 
ple. Sometimes  it  is  the  sole  source  of  water  for 
a  village.  Then  it  is  not  only  the  common  village 
laundry,  in  which  all  clothing  is  washed,  but  it  is 
also  the  great  village  fountain,  from  which  all  drink- 
ing-water is  drawn. 

The  women  in  our  picture  have  come  to  the  bank 
with  big  earthen  jars  to  fill.  It  is  in  the  cool  of 
early  morning,  and  the  mist  still  lies  thick  over  the 
marshes  bordering  the  river.  The  sun,  seen  through 


44  MILLET 

the  mist,  looks  like  a  round  ball.  On  the  farther 
bank,  where  a  group  of  poplars  grow,  some  horse- 
men ride  up  to  ford  the  stream.  They,  too,  are  set- 
ting forth  early  on  their  day's  work.  One  is  already 
half  across. 

The  women  have  picked  out,  along  the  marshy 
bank,  a  point  of  land  jutting  into  the  river  like  a 
miniature  promontory,  and  seemingly  of  firm  soil. 
It  is  only  large  enough  to  hold  one  at  a  time,  so 
they  take  turns.  One  is  now  filling  a  bottle,  while 
the  other  waits,  standing  beside  two  jars. 

The  first  woman  kneels  on  the  ground,  and  sup- 
porting herself  firmly  by  placing  one  hand  on  the 
edge  of  the  bank,  she  grasps  the  jar  by  the  handle, 
with  her  free  right  hand,  and  swings  it  well  out 
over  the  water.  Experience  has  taught  her  the 
most  scientific  way  of  filling  the  jar  with  least  mus- 
cular strain.  She  does  not  try  to  plunge  it  down 
into  the  water,  but  holding  it  on  its  side,  slightly 
tipped,  draws  it  along  with  the  mouth  half  under 
the  surface,  sucking  in  the  water  as  it  moves.  We 
see  what  hard,  firm  muscles  she  has  to  hold  the  arm 
out  so  tensely.  Her  arm  acts  like  a  compass  de- 
scribing the  arc  of  a  circle  through  the  water  with 
the  jar.  As  we  look,  we  can  almost  see  her  com- 
pleting the  circle,  and  drawing  up  the  full  jar  upon 
the  bank. 

The  woman  who  waits  her  turn  is  capable  of  the 
same  feat.  There  is  power  in  every  line  of  her 
figure  as  she  stands  in  what  has  been  well  described 


From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun,  Clement  &  Co. 


John  Andrew  &  Son,  So. 


FILLING  THE  WATER-BOTTLES 


FILLING  THE  WATER-BOTTLES  47 

by  a  critic  as  a  "  majestic  pose."  She  straightens 
back  to  rest,  with  her  arms  on  her  hips,  quite  uncon- 
scious that  there  is  anything  fine  in  her  appearance. 

Look  a  minute  and  you  will  see  that  she  is  the 
woman  of  the  Angelus.  As  we  saw  her  in  the 
other  picture,  with  head  bowed  and  hands  clasped 
on  her  breast,  we  did  not  realize  how  grand  and 
strong  she  was.  But  raising  her  head,  throwing 
back  her  chest,  and  putting  her  arms  on  her  sides, 
she  shows  us  now  her  full  power. 

Both  women  are  dressed  alike  in  the  clothing 
which  is  now  familiar  to  us  from  the  other  pic- 
tures,—  coarse  gowns  made  with  scanty  skirts,  long 
aprons  reaching  nearly  to  the  bottom  of  the  dress, 
kerchiefs  fastened  snugly  about  their  heads,  and 
wooden  sabots.  We  could  not  imagine  anything 
that  would  become  them  better.  It  is  part  of  the 
French  nature  to  understand  the  art  of  dressing,  and 
this  art  is  found  just  as  truly  among  the  peasants  of 
the  provinces  as  in  the  fashionable  world  at  Paris. 

The  picture  is  a  study  in  black  and  white  which 
any  one  who  cares  for  drawing  will  wish  to  examine 
attentively.  He  was  indeed  a  master  who  could, 
with  a  single  bit  of  charcoal,  make  us  feel  the  witch- 
ery of  this  early  morning  hour  by  the  river-side. 
We  note  the  many  different  "  tones  "  of  the  picture, 
—  the  faint  soft  mist  of  the  distant  atmosphere  over 
the  marshes,  growing  darker  on  the  poplars  and  the 
hilly  bank  in  the  middle  distance;  the  shadow  of 
the  bank  in  the  river;  the  gleam  of  the  sunlight 


48  MILLET 

on  the  calm  water  mid-stream ;  the  ripples  about 
the  jar ;  the  sharply  defined  figures  of  the  women, 
dark  on  the  side  turned  from  the  sun ;  and  the 
quivering  shadow  of  the  kneeling  woman  in  the 
ripple-broken  water  in  front. 

Among  primitive  peoples  the  hour  of  sunrise  was 
a  sacred  time,  when  hymns  were  sung  and  sacrifices 
were  offered  to  the  life-giving  sun.  The  painter 
Millet  has  expressed  something  of  the  mystic  solem- 
nity of  the  hour  in  this  picture.  The  sun  has  awak- 
ened the  world  to  work,  and  in  its  strength  men 
and  women  go  forth  to  labor.1 

1  A  fine  passage  on  the  morning  occurs  in  Thoreau's  second  chap* 
ter  of  Walden. 


IX 

FEEDING    HER   BIRDS 

As  we  have  already  seen  in  the  picture  of  the 
Woman  Feeding  Hens,  the  dooryard  in  French 
village  homes  is  so  shut  in  by  walls,  that  it  has 
the  privacy  of  a  family  living-room.  This  was  the 
arrangement  in  Millet's  own  home  at  Barbizon. 
The  painter  was  among  the  fortunate  ones  who  had  a 
garden  beyond  the  dooryard.  At  the  other  end  of 
this  was  his  studio,  where  he  worked  many  hours 
of  the  day.  It  is  said  that  he  used  to  leave  the 
door  open  that  he  might  hear  the  children's  voices  at 
their  play.  Sometimes,  indeed,  he  would  call  them 
in  to  look  at  his  pictures,  and  was  always  much 
pleased  when  they  seemed  to  understand  and  like 
them.  We  may  be  sure  that  he  often  looked  across 
the  garden  to  the  dooryard  where  the  family  life 
was  going  on,  and  at  such  times  he  must  have 
caught  many  a  pretty  picture.  Perhaps  our  picture 
of  this  mother  feeding  her  children  was  suggested 
in  this  way. 

Three  healthy,  happy  children  have  been  playing 
about  in  the  yard,  —  a  girl  of  six,  her  younger  sis- 
ter, and  a  brother  still  younger.  They  are  dressed 
simply,  so  as  to  enjoy  themselves  thoroughly  with- 
out fear  of  injuring  any  fine  clothes.  All  three 


50  MILLET 

wear  long  aprons  and  wooden  sabots.  The  little 
girls  have  their  flying  hair  confined  in  close  bonnet 
caps  tied  under  the  chin.  The  boy  rejoices  in  a 
round  cap  ornamented  on  top  with  a  button.  The 
sisters  take  great  care  of  their  little  brother. 

The  toys  are  of  a  very  rude  sort  and  evidently  of 
home  manufacture.  A  cart  is  constructed  of  a 
board  set  on  clumsy  wheels.  A  doll  is  roughly 
shaped  of  wood  and  wrapped  in  a  hood  and  blanket. 
There  is  a  basket  besides,  in  which  one  can  gather 
bits  of  treasure  picked  up  here  and  there  in  the 
yard. 

By  and  by  the  play  is  interrupted  by  a  familiar 
voice.  The  children  look  up  and  see  their  mother 
standing  smiling  in  the  doorway.  A  bowl  which 
she  has  in  her  hand  is  still  steaming,  and  an  appe- 
tizing odor  reminds  them  that  they  are  hungry. 
The  basket  and  the  cart  are  hastily  dropped,  but 
not  the  doll,  and  they  all  run  to  the  doorstep.  The 
brother  is  placed  in  the  middle  and  the  sisters 
seat  themselves  on  either  side.  The  elder  girl  still 
holds  her  doll  with  maternal  solicitude ;  the  other 
two  children  clasp  hands,  and  the  sister's  arm  is  put 
around  the  boy's  neck. 

Meanwhile  the  mother  has  seated  herself  directly 
in  front  of  them,  on  a  low  stool  such  as  is  used  by 
country  people  as  a  milking-stool.  She  tips  it  a 
little  as  she  leans  over  to  feed  the  children  in  turn 
from  a  long-handled  wooden  spoon.  Of  course  the 
first  taste  is  for  the  little  brother,  and  he  stretches 


Krom  a  carbon  print  bj  Braun,  Clement  &  Co. 


John  Andrew  4  Son, 


FEEDING  HER  BIRDS 


FEEDING  HER  BIRDS  53 

out  his  neck  eagerly,  opening  his  mouth  wide  so  as 
not  to  lose  a  drop.  The  sisters  look  on  eagerly,  the 
younger  one  opening  her  own  mouth  a  little,  quite 
unconsciously.  An  inquisitive  hen  runs  up  to  see 
what  good  things  there  are  to  eat.  In  the  garden 
r  beyond,  the  father  works  busily  at  his  spading. 

The  name  which  Millet  gave  to  this  picture  is  the 
French  word  Becquee,  which  cannot  be  translated 
into  any  corresponding  word  in  English.  It  means 
a  beakful,  that  is,  the  food  which  the  mother  bird 
holds  in  her  beak  to  give  to  the  nestlings. 

The  painter  had  in  mind,  you  see,  a  nestful  of 
birds  being  fed.  The  similarity  between  the  family 
and  the  bird  life  is  closely  carried  out  in  the  pic- 
ture. The  children  sit  together  as  snugly  as  birds 
in  a  nest.  The  mother  bends  toward  them  in  a 
brooding  attitude  which  is  like  the  bird  mother's. 
Her  extended  hand  suggests  a  bird's  beak,  tapering 
to  a  sharp  point  at  the  end  of  the  spoon.  The 
young  bird's  mouth  is  wide  open,  and  in  pops  the 
nice  spoonful  of  broth  !  The  house  itself  is  made 
to  look  like  a  cosy  little  nest  by  the  vine  that  em- 
bowers it.  The  sturdy  stem  runs  up  close  by  the 
doorstep  and  sends  out  over  door  and  window  its 
broad  branches  of  beautiful  green  leaves. 

And  just  as  the  father  bird  watches  the  nest  from 
his  perch  on  some  branch  of  the  tree,  the  father 
at  work  in  the  garden  can  look  from  time  to  time 
at  the  little  family  circle  in  the  doorway.  As  in 
the  picture  of  the  Woman  Feeding  Hens,  the  house 


64  MILLET 

is  built  of  stone  covered  with  plaster.  The  door 
casing  is  of  large  ill-matched  blocks  of  stone.  The 
dooryard  is  made  to  appear  much  larger  by  the 
glimpse  of  the  orchard  we  get  through  the  gate- 
way. No  out-of-door  picture  is  complete  which 
does  not  show  something  of  the  beauty  of  nature. 
The  dooryard  itself  would  be  a  bare  place  but  for 
the  shady  garden  beyond. 


THE    CHURCH   AT    GREVILLE 

THE  village-commune  of  Greville  has  nothing  to 
make  it  famous  except  that  it  was  the  birthplace 
of  the  painter  Millet.  It  is  at  the  tip  of  Cape 
La  Hague,  which  juts  abruptly  from  the  French 
coast  into  the  English  channel.  The  cape  is  a  steep 
headland  bristling  with  granite  rocks  and  needles, 
and  very  desolate  seen  from  the  sea.  Inland  it  is 
pleasant  and  fruitful,  with  apple  orchards  and  green 
meadows. 

The  village  life  centres  about  the  church,  for  the 
inhabitants  of  Greville  are  a  serious  and  God-fear- 
ing people.  The  church  is  the  spot  around  which 
cluster  the  most  sacred  associations  of  life.  Here 
the  babies  are  baptized,  and  the  youths  and  maidens 
confirmed ;  here  the  young  people  are  married,  and 
from  here  young  and  old  alike  are  carried  to  their 
last  resting-place.  The  building  is  hallowed  by  the 
memories  of  many  generations  of  pious  ancestors. 

The  Millet  family  lived  in  an  outlying  hamlet 
(Gruchy)  of  Greville,  and  were  somewhat  far  from 
the  church.  Yet  they  had  even  more  associations 
with  it  than  other  village  families.  Here  our  paint- 
er's father  had  early  shown  his  talent  for  music 
at  the  head  of  the  choir  of  boys  who  sang  at  the 


66  MILLET 

Sunday  service.  Here  at  one  time  his  old  uncle 
priest,  Charles  Millet,  held  the  office  of  vicar  and 
went  every  morning  to  say  mass. 

Among  the  earliest  recollections  of  Jean  Frangois 
was  a  visit  to  the  church  of  Greville  at  a  time  when 
some  new  bells  had  just  been  bought.  They  were 
first  to  be  baptized,  as  was  the  custom,  before  being 
hung  in  the  tower,  and  it  was  while  they  still  stood 
on  the  ground  that  the  mother  brought  her  little 
boy  to  see  them.  "  I  well  remember  how  much  I 
was  impressed,"  he  afterwards  said,  "  at  finding  my- 
self in  so  vast  a  place  as  the  church,  which  seemed 
even  more  immense  than  our  barn,  and  how  the 
beauty  of  the  big  windows,  with  their  lozenge-shaped 
panes,  struck  my  imagination." 

At  the  age  of  twelve  the  boy  went  to  be  con- 
firmed at  the  church  of  Greville,  and  thenceforth 
had  another  memorable  experience  to  associate  with 
the  place.  The  vicar,  who  questioned  him,  found  him 
so  intelligent  that  he  offered  to  teach  him  Latin. 
The  lessons  led  to  the  poems  of  Virgil,  which  opened 
a  new  world  to  him. 

Years  passed;  the  boy  became  a  man  and  the 
man  became  a  famous  artist.  But  the  path  to  fame 
had  been  a  toilsome  one,  and  as  Millet  pressed  on 
his  way  he  was  able  to  return  but  seldom  to  the 
spots  he  had  loved  in  his  youth,  and  then  only  on 
sad  errands.  At  length  the  time  came  (1871)  when 
the  artist  brought  his  entire  family  to  his  native 
Greville  to  spend  a  long  summer  holiday.  Millet 


THE  CHURCH  AT  GREVILLE  59 

made  many  sketches  of  familiar  scenes  which  gave 
him  material  for  work  for  the  next  three  years.  One 
of  these  pictures  was  that  of  the  village  church, 
which  he  began  to  paint  sitting  at  one  of  the  win- 
dows of  the  inn  where  the  family  were  staying. 

If  the  building  had  lost  the  grandeur  it  possessed 
for  his  childish  imagination,  it  was  still  full  of  artis- 
tic possibilities  for  a  beautiful  picture. 

It  is  a  solid  structure,  and  we  fancy  that  the 
builders  did  not  have  far  to  bring  the  stone  of 
which  it  is  composed.  The  great  granite  cliffs 
which  rise  from  the  sea  must  be  an  inexhaustible 
quarry.  The  building  is  low  and  broad,  to  with- 
stand the  bleak  winds.  A  less  substantial  struc- 
ture, perched  on  this  plateau,  would  be  swept  over 
the  cliffs  into  the  sea.  There  is  something  about 
it  suggestive  of  the  sturdy  character  of  the  Norman 
peasants  themselves,  strong,  patient,  and  enduring. 
It  is  very  old  ;  the  passing  years  have  covered  the 
walls  with  moss,  and  nature  seems  to  have  made  the 
place  her  own.  It  is  as  if,  instead  of  being  built 
with  hands,  it  were  a  portion  of  the  old  cliffs  them- 
selves. 

The  grassy  hillock  against  which  the  church  nes- 
tles is  filled  with  graves,  a  cross  here  and  there 
marking  the  place  where  some  more  important  per- 
sonage is  buried.  Here  is  the  sacred  spot  where 
Millet's  saintly  old  grandmother  was  laid  to  rest. 
A  rough  stone  wall  surrounds  the  churchyard,  as 
old  and  moss-grown  as  the  building  itself.  Some 


60  MILLET 

stone  steps  leading  into  the  yard  are  hollowed  by 
the  feet  of  many  generations  of  worshippers.  In 
the  rear  is  a  low  stone  house  embowered  in  trees. 

The  square  bell-tower  lifts  a  weather-vane  against 
the  sky,  and  the  birds  flock  about  it  as  about  an  old 
home.  The  rather  steep  roof  is  slightly  depressed, 
as  if  beginning  to  sink  in. 

With  a  painter's  instinct  Millet  chose  the  point 
of  view  from  which  all  the  lines  of  the  church 
would  be  most  beautiful  and  whence  we  may  see  to 
the  best  advantage  the  quaint  outlines  of  the  tower. 
Beside  this,  he  took  for  his  work  the  day  and  hour 
when  that  great  artist,  the  sun,  could  lend  most 
effective  help.  So  we  see  the  simple  little  building 
at  its  best.  The  sky  makes  a  glorious  background, 
with  fleecy  clouds  delicately  veiling  its  brilliancy. 
The  bright  light  throws  a  shadow  of  the  tower 
across  the  roof,  breaking  the  monotony  of  its 
length.  The  bareness  of  the  big  barn-like  end  is 
softened  by  the  shadow  in  which  it  is  seen.  The 
plain  side  is  decorated  with  the  shadows  of  the  but- 
tresses and  window  embrasures. 

The  sheep  are  as  much  at  home  here  as  the  birds. 
They  nibble  contentedly  in  the  road  by  the  wall, 
and  are  undisturbed  by  the  approach  of  a  villager. 
Beyond,  at  the  left,  is  a  glimpse  of  the  level 
stretch  of  the  sea.  This  is  a  spot  where  earth  and 
sky  and  water  meet,  where  the  fishermen  from  the 
sea  and  the  ploughmen  from  the  fields  come  to 
worship  God. 


XI 

THE    SOWEB 

IT  is  nightfall,  and  the  sky  is  cloudy  save  where 
the  last  rays  of  the  setting  sun  illumine  a  spot  on 
the  horizon.  While  the  light  lasts,  the  Sower  still 
holds  to  his  task  of  sowing  the  seed.  A  large  sack 
of  grain  is  fastened  about  his  body  and  hangs  at  his 
left  side,  where  one  end  of  it  is  grasped  firmly  in 
the  left  hand  lest  any  of  the  precious  seed  be  spilled. 
Into  this  bag  he  plunges  his  right  hand  from  time 
to  time,  and  draws  out  a  handful  of  grain  which  he 
flings  into  the  furrow  as  he  walks  along. 

The  Sower's  task  ended,  a  series  of  strange  trans- 
formations begins  in  the  life  of  the  seed.  The 
winter  rain  softens  and  swells  it,  and  when  spring 
comes  it  pushes  its  way  up  in  a  tiny  shoot.  Soon 
the  slender  blades  appear  in  close  lines ;  by  and  by 
the  stalks  grow  tall  and  strong,  and  the  field  is  full 
of  the  beautiful  green  grain. 

Then  the  hot  summer  sun  shines  with  ripening 
power ;  the  wheat  turns  a  golden  yellow ;  the  ears 
bend  under  the  weight  of  the  grain,  and  it  is  time 
for  the  harvest.  The  reapers  come  with  sickle  and 
scythe,  and  the  grain  is  cut,  and  bound  into  great 
sheaves.  The  thrashing  follows,  when  the  ear  is 
shaken  off  the  stalk,  and  the  grain  is  winnowed. 


62  MILLET 

And  now  the  mills  take  up  the  work,  the  golden 
wheat  grains  are  crushed,  and  the  fine  white  flour 
which  they  contain  is  sifted  and  put  into  bags. 
The  flour  is  mixed  and  kneaded  and  baked,  and  at 
length  comes  forth  from  the  oven  a  fragrant  loaf 
of  bread. 

Now'  bread  is  a  necessity  of  life  to  the  people, 
and  the  supply  of  bread  turns  on  the  history  of  the 
seed.  If  the  harvest  is  plenty,  the  people  may  eat 
and  be  happy.  If  it  is  poor,  they  suffer  the  mis- 
eries of  hunger.  If  it  fails  altogether,  they  die  of 
starvation.  It  is  then  a  solemn  moment  when  the 
seed  is  planted.  Often  the  sower  begins  his  task 
by  tossing  a  handful  of  grain  into  the  air  in  the 
sign  of  a  cross,  offering  a  prayer  for  a  blessing  on 
the  seed.  His  is  a  grave  responsibility;  every 
handful  of  seed  means  many  loaves  of  bread  for 
hungry  mouths.  He  must  choose  the  right  kind  of 
seed  for  his  soil,  the  right  kind  of  weather  for  the 
planting,  and  use  the  grain  neither  too  lavishly  nor 
too  sparingly.1 

This  is  why  the  Sower  in  our  picture  takes  his 
task  so  seriously.  He  carries  in  his  hand  the  key 
to  prosperity.  He  is  a  true  king.  Peasant  though 
he  is,  he  feels  the  dignity  of  his  calling,  and  bears 
himself  royally.  He  advances  with  a  long  swinging 
stride,  measuring,  his  steps  rhythmically  as  if  beat- 
ing time  to  inaudible  music.  His  right  arm  moves 

1  For  farmer's  lore  as  to  the  diverse  soils  and  diverse  planting 
seasons,  see  Virgil's  Eclogues,  books  i.  and  ii. 


From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun,  Clement  it  Co. 


John  Andrew  &  Son,  So. 


THE  SOWER 


THE  SOWER  65 

to  and  fro,  swinging  from  the  shoulder  as  on  a  pivot, 
and  describing  the  arc  of  a  circle. 

The  hilly  field  in  which  he  works  is  such  as  the 
painter  Millet  was  familiar  with  in  his  peasant  child- 
hood in  Normandy.  A  yoke  of  oxen  are  drawing 
the  plough  in  the  distance,  as  is  the  custom  in  that 
province.  The  Sower  himself  is  a  true  Norman 
peasant. 

It  is  interesting  to  trace  the  outlines  of  the  com- 
position. There  is  first  the  long  line  on  the  Sower's 
right  side,  beginning  at  the  shoulder  and  following 
the  outer  edge  of  the  right  leg  to  the  ground.  On 
the  other  side,  curving  to  meet  this,  is  a  line  which 
begins  at  the  top  of  the  head,  follows  the  left  arm 
and  the  overhanging  sack,  and  is  faintly  continued 
by  the  tiny  stream  of  seed  which  leaks  from  the 
corner  of  the  bag  and  falls  near  the  Sower's  foot. 
Crossing  these  curves  in  the  opposite  direction  are 
the  lines  of  the  right  arm  and  the  left  leg.  Thus 
the  figure  is  painted  in  strong  simple  outlines  such 
as  we  see  in  the  statues  by  great  sculptors. 

The  line  defining  the  edge  of  the  field  against 
the  sky,  sloping  in  the  direction  in  which  the  Sower 
walks,  adds  to  the  impression  of  motion  which  is  so 
strongly  suggested  by  the  picture.  As  we  look,  we 
almost  expect  to  see  the  Sower  reach  the  foot  of 
the  slope,  and  stride  out  of  sight,  still  flinging  the 
grain  as  he  goes. 

There  is  another  thing  to  note  about  the  compo- 
sition, and  that  is  the  perfect  proportion  of  the  single 


66  MILLET 

figure  to  the  canvas  which  it  so  completely  fills. 
This  was  the  result  of  the  painter's  experiments.  In 
the  haste  of  his  first  inspiration  he  did  not  allow 
space  enough  to  surround  the  Sower.1  He  then 
carefully  traced  the  figure  on  a  larger  canvas  and 
made  a  second  picture.  Afterwards  the  same  sub- 
ject was  repeated  in  a  Barbizon  landscape. 

Our  American  poet  William  Cullen  Bryant  has 
written  a  poem  called  "  The  Song  of  the  Sower," 
which  is  very  suggestive  in  connection  with  Millet's 
painting.2  This  is  the  way  the  song  ends :  — 

"  Brethren,  the  sower's  task  is  done. 
The  seed  is  in  its  winter  bed. 
Now  let  the  dark-brown  mould  be  spread, 
To  hide  it  from  the  sun, 
And  leave  it  to  the  kindly  care 
Of  the  still  earth  and  brooding  air, 
As  when  the  mother,  from  her  breast, 
Lays  the  hushed  babe  apart  to  rest, 
And  shades  its  eyes,  and  waits  to  see 
How  sweet  its  waking  smile  will  be. 
The  tempest  now  may  smite,  the  sleet 
All  night  on  the  drowned  furrow  beat, 
And  winds  that,  from  the  cloudy  hold, 
Of  winter  breathe  the  bitter  cold, 
Stiffen  to  stone  the  yellow  mould, 

Tet  safe  shall  lie  the  wheat ; 
Till,  out  of  heaven's  unmeasured  blue 
Shall  walk  again  the  genial  year, 
To  wake  with  warmth  and  nurse  with  dew 
The  germs  we  lay  to  slumber  here." 

*  In  spite  of  this  imperfection  the  first  Sower  is  a  highly  prized 
painting  and  is  in  the  Quincy-Shaw  Collection,  Boston. 

3  Compare  also  Victor  Hugo's  poem,  often  referred  to  in  descrip- 
tions of  this  picture,  Saison  des  SemaUles :  Le  Soir. 


XII 

THE  GLEANERS 

IT  is  harvest  time  on  a  large  farm.  The  broad 
fields  have  been  shorn  of  their  golden  grain,  and 
men  and  women  are  still  busy  gathering  it  in.  The 
binders  have  tied  the  wheat  in  sheaves  with  withes, 
the  sheaves  are  piled  upon  a  wagon  and  carried  to 
a  place  near  the  farm  buildings,  where  they  are 
stacked  in  great  mounds  resembling  enormous  soup 
tureens.  The  overseer  rides  to  and  fro  on  his  horse 
giving  orders  to  the  laborers. 

Now  come  the  gleaners  into  the  field  to  claim  the 
time-honored  privilege  of  gathering  up  the  scattered 
ears  still  lying  on  the  ground.  The  custom  dates 
back  to  very  early  times.1  The  ancient  Hebrews 
had  a  strict  religious  law  in  regard  to  it :  "  When 
ye  reap  the  harvest  of  your  land,  thou  shalt  not 
make  clean  riddance  of  the  corners  of  thy  field  when 
thou  reapest,  neither  shalt  thou  gather  any  glean- 
ing of  thy  harvest :  thou  shalt  leave  them  unto  the 
poor,  and  to  the  stranger." 2  Another  law  says 
that  the  gleanings  are  "  for  the  fatherless  and  for 
the  widow  ;  that  the  Lord  thy  God  may  bless  thee 
in  all  the  work  of  thine  hands."  3 

1  See  the  Book  of  Ruth. 

2  Leviticus,  chapter  xxiii.,  verse  22. 

8  Deuteronomy,  chapter  xxiv.,  verse  19. 


68  MILLET 

This  generous  practice  is  still  observed  in  France. 
The  owner  of  a  grain  field  would  be  afraid  of  bad 
luck  to  the  harvest  if  he  should  refuse  to  let  the 
gleaners  in  after  the  reapers.  Gleaning  is,  however, 
allowed  only  in  broad  daylight,  that  no  dishonest 
persons  may  carry  away  entire  sheaves. 

It  is  near  noon  of  a  summer  day,  and  the  sun  is 
high  in  the  heavens,  casting  only  small  shadows 
about  the  feet.  The  gleaners  are  three  women  of 
the  poorer  peasant  class.  They  are  tidily  dressed 
in  their  coarse  working  clothes,  and  wear  kerchiefs 
tied  over  their  heads,  with  the  edge  projecting  a 
little  over  the  forehead  to  shade  the  eyes.  The 
dresses  are  cut  rather  low  in  the  neck,  for  theirs  is 
warm  work. 

They  make  their  way  through  the  coarse  stubble, 
as  sharp  as  needles,  gathering  here  and  there  a 
stray  ear  of  the  precious  wheat.  Already  they 
have  collected  enough  to  make  several  little  bundles, 
tied  neatly,  and  piled  together  on  the  ground  at  one 
side. 

As  we  look  at  them  closely  we  see  that  they  repre- 
sent the  three  ages  of  womanhood :  there  is  a 
maiden,  a  matron,  and  an  old  woman.  The  near- 
est figure,  standing  at  the  right,  is  the  eldest  of  the 
three.  She  cannot  bear  the  strain  of  stooping  long 
at  a  time,  and  bends  stiffly  and  painfully  to  her 
task.  Next  her  is  a  solidly  built  woman,  with  square 
figure  and  a  broad  back  capable  of  bearing  heavy 
burdens.  Those  strong  large  hands  have  done  hard 


THE  GLEANERS  71 

work.  The  third  figure  is  that  of  a  young  woman 
with  a  lithe,  girlish  form.  With  a  girl's  thought 
for  appearance  she  has  pinned  her  kerchief  so  that 
the  ends  at  the  back  form  a  little  cape  to  shield  her 
neck  from  the  burning  sun.  Unlike  her  compan- 
ions, she  wears  no  apron.  While  the  others  use  their 
aprons  doubled  up  to  form  sacks  for  their  gleanings, 
she  holds  her  grain  in  her  hand. 

If  you  will  try  in  turn  each  one  of  the  positions 
taken  by  the  several  figures,  you  will  see  how  dif- 
ferently the  three  work.  The  two  who  put  the 
grain  in  the  apron,  or  pass  it  into  the  hand  which 
rests  on  the  knee,  must  every  time  lift  themselves 
up  with  an  awkward  backward  motion.  The  younger 
gleaner  has  found  a  short  and  direct  route  from  one 
hand  to  the  other,  by  resting  the  left  hand,  palm  up, 
upon  the  back,  where  the  right  can  reach  it  by  a 
simple  upward  motion  of  the  arm  which  requires 
no  exertion  of  the  body.  Her  method  saves  the 
strength  and  is  more  graceful. 

Moving  forward  in  the  stooping  posture,  with 
eyes  fixed  upon  the  ground,  the  figures  of  the 
gleaners  have  been  compared  to  great  grasshoppers, 
making  their  odd,  irregular,  hopping  progress  across 
the  field.  Even  as  we  look  they  seem  to  move 
toward  us. 

The  picture  is  a  fine  study  in  lines.  The  middle 
figure  is  constructed  in  a  square  outline,  and  this 
square  effect  is  emphasized  in  various  ways,  —  by 
the  right  angle  formed  between  the  line  across  the 


72  MILLET 

bust  and  the  right  arm,  by  the  square  corner  be- 
tween chin  and  neck,  and  by  the  square  shape  of 
the  kerchief  at  the  back  of  the  head.  We  thus  get 
an  idea  of  the  solid,  prosaic  character  of  the  woman 
herself. 

The  younger  woman  is  a  creature  of  beautiful 
curves.  The  lines  of  her  back  and  bust  flow  to- 
gether in  an  oval  figure  which  the  position  of  the 
left  arm  completes.  The  outstretched  right  arm 
continues  the  fine  line  across  the  back.  The  lovely 
curve  of  the  throat,  the  shapeliness  of  the  hand, 
even  the  pretty  adjustment  of  the  kerchief,  lend 
added  touches  to  the  charm  of  the  youthful  figure. 

The  lines  of  the  standing  figure  curve  towards 
the  other  two,  and  carry  the  composition  to  suffi- 
cient height.  The  lines  enclosing  the  entire  group 
form  a  mound-like  figure  not  unlike  a  wheat  stack 
in  shape.  A  wheat  stack  faintly  seen  across  the 
distance  in  the  centre  of  the  field  marks  the  apex 
of  the  mound,  the  sides  being  formed  by  the  outer 
lines  of  the  two  outer  figures. 

When  we  compare  the  picture  with  the  others  we 
have  seen  in  the  same  general  style  of  composition, 
showing  a  level  plain  with  figures  in  front,  we  note 
how  much  more  detail  the  background  of  the 
Gleaners  contains.  This  is  because  the  figures  do 
not  come  above  the  horizon  line,  as  do  those  in  the 
Angelus  and  Shepherdess.  Hence  the  eye  must  be 
led  upward  by  minor  objects,  to  take  in  the  entire 
panorama  spread  before  us. 


XIII 

THE    MILKMAID  1 

ALL  through  the  years  of  Millet's  life  and  work 
in  Barbizon,  his  thoughts  used  to  turn  often  to  the 
little  village  in  Normandy  where  he  spent  his  youth. 
His  early  life  in  the  fields  impressed  upon  his  mem- 
ory all  the  out-of-door  sights  peculiar  to  his  native 
province.  The  customs  of  peasants  in  France  differ 
in  the  various  provinces  just  as  do  ours  in  the 
various  states.  Some  of  the  household  utensils  in 
Millet's  childhood's  home  were  such  as  he  never  saw 
elsewhere,  and  always  remembered  with  pleasure. 
The  ways  of  doing  the  work  in  Greville  were  not 
altogether  like  the  ways  of  Barbizon,  and  Millet's 
observant  eye  and  retentive  memory  noted  these 
differences  with  interest.  When  he  revisited  his 
home  in  later  life,  he  made  careful  sketches  of  some 
of  the  jugs  and  kitchen  utensils  used  in  the  family. 
He  even  carried  off  to  his  Barbizon  studio  one 
particular  brass  jar  which  was  used  when  the  girl 
went  to  the  field  to  milk  cows.  He  also  sketched 
a  girl  carrying  a  jug  of  milk  on  her  shoulder  in  the 
fashion  of  the  place.  Out  of  such  studies  was  made 

1  The  title  of  Water-Carrier  has  been  incorrectly  attached  to  this 
picture,  though  the  sketch  on  which  it  is  based  is  properly  known  as 
the  Milkmaid. 


74  MILLET 

our  picture  of  the  Milkmaid.  "  Women  in  my  coun- 
try carry  jars  of  milk  in  that  way/'  said  the  painter 
when  explaining  the  picture  to  a  visitor  at  his  studio, 
and  went  on  to  tell  of  other  features  of  the  life  in 
Normandy,  which  he  reproduced  in  his  pictures, 
though  some  of  them  he  had  not  seen  in  all  the 
long  time  since  his  boyhood.  As  a  reminiscence  of 
Normandy  the  Milkmaid  is  a  companion  piece  to 
the  Sower.  There  are  other  points  of  resemblance 
between  the  two  pictures,  as  we  shall  see. 

The  day  draws  to  its  close  in  splendor,  and  the 
western  sky  is  all  aflame.  Against  this  brilliant 
background  the  figure  of  the  Milkmaid  looms  up 
grandly  as  she  advances  along  the  path  through  the 
meadow.  She  is  returning  from  the  field  which 
lies  on  the  other  slope  of  the  hill.  There  the  cows 
are  pastured  and  a  rude  fence  marks  the  boundary. 
The  girl  has  been  out  for  the  milking,  and  a  cow 
near  the  fence  turns  its  head  in  the  direction  of  her 
retreating  figure. 

The  milk  is  carried  in  a  large  jar  on  the  left 
shoulder.  By  holding  the  left  arm  akimbo,  hand 
resting  on  the  hip,  the  girl  makes  her  shoulder  a 
little  broader,  as  it  were,  enlarging  the  support  of 
the  jar.  The  way  in  which  the  burden  is  kept  in 
place  is  very  interesting.  To  put  up  the  right  arm 
to  steady  it  would  be  impossible,  for  the  arm  is  not 
long  enough  to  insure  a  firm  grasp  upon  so  heavy 
a  weight.  So  a  cord  or  strap  is  passed  through  the 
handle  of  the  jar,  carried  over  the  head,  and  held 


From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun,  Clement  &  Co. 


John  Andrew  &  Son,  Se. 


THE  MILKMAID 


THE  MILKMAID  77 

in  the  right  hand.  The  strong  arm  is  stretched 
tense  to  keep  the  strap  tight.  The  head  must  of 
course  be  protected  from  the  straining  of  the  cord, 
the  shoulder  from  the  pressure  of  the  jar.  Both 
are  therefore  well  padded.  The  head  pad  resembles 
a  cap  hanging  in  lappets  on  each  side.  Even  with 
this  protection  the  girl's  face  shows  the  strain. 

A  picture  like  this  teaches  us  that  there  are  other 
ways  of  giving  a  figure  beauty  than  by  making  the 
face  pretty.  Just  as  Millet's  Shepherdess  differs 
altogether  from  the  little  Bopeep  of  the  nursery 
tale,  so  this  peasant  girl  is  not  at  all  like  the  pretty 
milkmaids  who  carry  milking-stools  and  shining 
pails  through  the  pages  of  the  picture  books. 
Millet  had  no  patience  with  such  pictures.  Pretty 
girls  were  not  fit  for  hard  work,  he  said,  and  he 
always  wanted  to  have  the  people  he  painted  look 
as  if  they  belonged  to  their  station.  Fitness  was 
in  his  mind  one  of  the  chief  elements  of  beauty. 

So  he  shows  us  in  this  Milkmaid  a  young  woman 
framed  in  the  massive  proportions  of  an  Amazon, 
and  eminently  fitted  for  her  lot  in  life.  Her  chief 
beauty  lies  in  the  expression  of  her  splendidly  de- 
veloped figure.  Her  choicest  gifts  are  the  health 
and  virtue  which  most  abound  in  the  free  life  of 
God's  country. 

"  God  made  the  country,  and  man  made  the  town. 
What  wonder,  then,  that  health  and  virtue,  gifts 
That  can  alone  make  sweet  the  bitter  draught 
That  life  holds  out  to  all,  should  most  abound 
And  least  be  threatened  in  the  fields  and  groves." l 
1  From  Cowper's  Task. 


78  MILLET 

A  study  of  the  lines  of  the  picture  will  show  the 
artistic  beauty  of  the  composition.  You  may  trace 
a  long  beautiful  curve  beginning  at  the  girl's  finger 
tip  and  extending  along  the  cord  across  the  top  of 
the  milk  jar.  Starting  from  the  same  point  another 
good  line  follows  the  arm  and  shoulder  across  the 
face  and  along  the  edge  of  the  jar.  At  the  base  of 
the  composition  we  find  corresponding  lines  which 
may  be  drawn  from  the  toe  of  the  right  foot.  One 
follows  the  diagonal  of  the  path  and  the  other  runs 
along  the  edge  of  the  lifted  skirt. 

There  are  other  fine  lines  in  the  drawing  of  the 
bodice  and  the  folds  of  the  skirt.  Altogether  they 
are  as  few  in  number  and  as  strongly  emphasized, 
though  not  so  grand,  as  those  of  the  Sower. 


XIV 

THE   WOMAN    CHUBNINQ 

AGAIN  we  are  in  the  picturesque  province  of 
Normandy,  and  are  shown  the  interior  of  a  dairy 
where  a  woman  is  busy  churning.  It  is  a  quaint 
place,  with  raftered  ceiling  and  stone-paved  floor, 
and  the  furnishings  are  only  such  as  are  required 
by  the  work  in  hand.  On  some  wooden  shelves 
against  the  farther  wall  are  vessels  of  earthenware 
and  metal,  to  hold  cream,  cheese,  butter,  and  the 
like.  The  churn  is  one  of  the  old-fashioned  up- 
right sort,  not  unlike  those  used  in  early  New  Eng- 
land households,  and  large  enough  to  contain  a  good 
many  quarts  of  cream.  The  woman  stands  beside 
it,  grasping  with  both  hands  the  handle  of  the  dasher, 
or  plunger,  which  is  worked  up  and  down  to  keep 
the  cream  in  motion  and  so  change  it  into  butter. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  churning  process  the 
movement  of  the  dasher  is  slow,  so  that  the  cream 
may  be  thoroughly  mixed.  Then  it  goes  more 
rapidly  for  a  time,  till,  just  as  the  arms  grow  weary, 
the  butter  begins  to  "  come,"  when  the  speed  slack- 
ens to  the  end,  the  entire  process  occupying  thirty 
or  forty  minutes.  The  butter  collects  in  yellow 
lumps,  which  are  at  length  taken  from  the  churn, 
washed  and  kneaded  to  press  out  the  buttermilk, 


80  MILLET 

and  then  moulded  into  pats.  The  pleasure  of  the 
finishing  touches  makes  up  for  the  fatiguing  mono- 
tony of  the  churning.  George  Eliot,  in  the  novel 
of  "  Adam  Bede,"  gives  a  charming  description  of 
Hetty  Sorrel's  butter-making,  with  all  the  pretty 
attitudes  and  movements  of  patting  and  rolling  the 
sweet-scented  butter  into  moulds. 

We  can  hardly  tell,  from  the  attitude  of  the  woman 
in  our  picture,  how  far  her  work  has  progressed, 
but  her  expression  of  satisfaction  seems  to  show 
that  the  butter  is  "coming"  well.  The  work  of 
butter-making  varies  curiously  at  different  times. 
Sometimes  the  butter  comes  quickly  and  easily,  and 
again,  only  after  long  and  laborious  delays.  There 
seems,  indeed,  no  rule  about  the  process ;  it  appears 
to  be  all  a  matter  of  "  luck."  Country  people  have 
always  been  very  superstitious  in  regard  to  it ;  and 
not  understanding  the  true  reasons  for  a  success- 
ful or  an  unsuccessful  churning,  they  attribute  any 
remarkable  effects  to  supernatural  agencies. 

In  the  old  days  of  witchcraft  superstitions,  they 
used  to  think  that  when  the  cream  did  not  readily 
turn  to  butter,  the  churn  had  been  tampered  with 
by  some  witch,  like  Mabel  Martin's  mother  in  Whit- 
tier's  poem.  Witches  were  sometimes  supposed  to 
work  a  baleful  charm  on  the  milk  by  putting  under 
the  doorsill  some  magical  object,  such  as  a  picture 
of  a  toad  or  a  lizard. 

In  Scotland,  when  churning  was  easy  it  was  be- 
cause of  the  secret  help  of  the  "  brownie."  He  was 


From  a  carbon  print  by  Braun,  Clement  &  Co. 

THE  WOMAN  CHURNING 


John  Andrew  &  Son,  So. 


THE  WOMAN  CHURNING  83 

a  tiny,  elf -like  creature  who  lived  in  the  barn  and 
was  never  seen  of  men  ;  but  his  presence  was  made 
known  by  his  many  deeds  of  helpfulness  in  kitchen 
and  dairy,  for  which  he  was  rewarded  by  a  daily 
bowl  of  milk.  Those  who  have  read  George  Mac- 
Donald's  story  of  Sir  Gibbie  remember  how  the 
little  waif  from  the  city  was  mistaken  for  a  brownie 
because  he  secretly  helped  in  the  churning. 

In  France  a  pious  class  of  peasants  pray  to  St. 
Blaise  for  a  blessing  on  their  various  farm  occupa- 
tions, including  the  dairy  work.  A  hymn  written 
to  the  saint  contains  this  petition  :  — 

"  In  our  dairies,  curds  and  cream 
And  fair  cheeses  may  we  see  : 
Great  St.  Blaise,  oh,  grant  our  plea."  l 

Some  such  prayer  as  this  may  be  running  through 
the  mind  of  the  woman  in  our  picture.  She  has 
the  earnest  and  simple  character  which  belongs  to 
the  Norman  peasant.  Hers  is  a  kindly  nature,  too, 
and  the  cat  rubs  familiarly  against  her  as  if  sure  of 
a  friend  who  has  often  set  a  saucer  of  milk  in  his 
way.  With  sleeves  rolled  up  and  skirts  tucked 
about  her,  she  attacks  her  work  in  a  strong,  capable 
way  which  shows  that  it  is  a  pleasure.  The  light 
comes  from  some  high  window  at  the  left,  and, 
gleaming  on  her  arms,  shows  how  firm  and  hard  the 
flesh  is. 

We  know  that  this  is  a  Norman  peasant  woman 

1  From  Ronsard's  "Hymn  to  St.  Blaise,"  translated  by  Henry 
Naegely  in  /.  F.  Millet  and  Rustic  Art. 


84  MILLET 

from  her  tall  cap.  There  are  many  styles  of  caps 
peculiar  to  different  parts  of  France,  but  those  worn 
in  Normandy  are  remarkable  for  their  height. 
When  some  of  the  people  of  this  province  emigrated 
to  the  western  continent  and  settled  in  Acadia,  the 
land  of  Evangeline,  the  women  brought  their  caps 
with  them  and  continued  to  wear  them  many  years, 
as  we  read  in  Longfellow's  "  Evangeline." 

Our  previous  studies  of  the  other  pictures  of  this 
collection  help  us  to  see  at  once  the  good  points  of 
composition  in  the  Woman  Churning.  The  main 
lines  of  the  group  in  the  foreground  form  a  tall  pyra- 
mid. The  shape  of  the  churn  gives  us  the  line  at  the 
right  side,  and  the  figure  of  the  cat  carries  the  line 
of  the  woman's  skirt  into  a  corresponding  slant  on 
the  left.  The  lines  of  the  tiled  floor  add  to  the 
pyramidal  effect  by  converging  in  perspective.  Even 
the  broom  leaning  against  the  shelf  near  the  door 
takes  the  same  diagonal  direction  as  the  tiles  of  the 
right  side. 

We  have  here  also  a  new  illustration  of  the  art 
of  treating  enclosed  spaces. 1  An  outlet  is  given  to 
the  room  through  the  door  opening  into  the  farm- 
yard. Across  the  yard  stands  a  low  cow-shed,  in 
which  a  woman  is  seated  milking  a  cow.  This 
building,  however,  does  not  altogether  block  up  the 
view  from  the  dairy  door.  Above  the  roof  is  a 
strip  of  sky,  and  through  a  square  window  at  the 
back  is  seen  a  bit  of  the  meadow. 

1  See  chapters  ii.  and  vi. 


XV 

THE   MAN   WITH   THE   HOE 

To  the  peasant  farmer  every  month  of  the  year 
brings  its  own  labors.  From  seed  time  to  harvest 
there  is  a  constant  succession  of  different  tasks,  and 
hardly  is  the  harvest  gathered  in  before  it  is  time  to 
prepare  again  for  planting.  Before  ploughing  can 
be  begun  the  fields  must  first  be  cleared  of  stubble 
and  weeds.  Now  in  Millet's  village  of  Barbizon, 
this  clearing  of  the  fields  was  done,  in  his  day,  by 
means  of  an  implement  called  in  French  a  houe. 
Although  we  translate  the  word  as  hoe,  the  tool  is 
quite  unlike  the  American  article  of  that  name.  It 
looks  a  little  like  a  carpenter's  adze,  though  much 
larger  and  heavier,  the  blade  being  as  broad  as  that 
of  a  shovel.  The  handle  is  short  and  the  imple- 
ment is  very  clumsy  and  fatiguing  to  use.  Even 
the  stoutest  peasant  finds  the  work  wearisome. 

The  man  in  our  picture  has  paused  for  a  mo- 
ment's rest  in  this  toilsome  labor,  and  leans  panting 
on  his  hoe.  In  the  heat  of  his  toil  he  has  thrown 
off  his  hat  and  blouse,  which  now  lie  together  on 
the  ground  behind  him.  His  damp  hair  is  matted 
together  on  his  forehead,  his  brawny  chest  is  ex- 
posed by  the  open  shirt,  his  horny  hands  are  clasped 


86  MILLET 

over  the  hoe  handle.  Some  distant  object  catches 
his  eye.  It  may  be  a  farm  wagon  moving  across 
the  plain,  or  perhaps  a  bird  flying  through  the 
clear  air.  To  follow  the  course  of  such  an  object  a 
moment  is  a  welcome  change  from  the  monotonous 
rise  and  fall  of  the  hoe. 

It  is  a  rough  and  uneven  field  in  which  the  la- 
borer works,  rising  here  and  there  in  small  hillocks, 
and  thickly  overgrown  with  brambles  and  coarse 
tufts  of  herbage.  When  these  weeds  are  loosened 
from  the  soil,  they  are  raked  in  little  heaps  and 
burned.  In  the  field  just  back  of  this  is  a  circle 
of  these  bonfires,  sending  up  their  columns  of  smoke 
towards  the  sky.  A  young  woman  is  busy  raking 
together  the  piles.  In  the  distance  she  looks  like 
a  priestess  of  ancient  times  presiding  at  some  mys- 
tic rites  of  fire  worship.  Far  beyond,  a  shapely  tree 
is  outlined  against  the  horizon. 

To  study  this  picture  profitably,  we  must  consider 
separately  the  subject  and  the  artistic  qualities. 
These  two  elements  in  a  work  of  art  are  often  con- 
fused, but  are  in  reality  quite  distinct.  Very  un- 
pleasant subjects  have  sometimes  been  employed  in 
pictures  of  great  artistic  merit,  and  again  beautiful 
subjects  have  sometimes  been  treated  very  indiffer- 
ently. When  great  art  is  united  with  a  great  sub- 
ject, we  have  ideal  perfection ;  but  poor  art  and  a 
poor  subject  together  are  intolerable.  Now  some 
people  think  only  of  the  subject  when  they  look  at 
a  picture,  and  others,  more  critical,  look  only  at  the 


THE  MAN  WITH  THE  HOE  89 

qualities  of  art  it  contains.  The  best  way  of  all  is 
to  try  to  understand  something  of  both. 

In  the  first  glance  at  this  picture  we  do  not  find 
the  subject  very  attractive.  The  laborer  is  awkward, 
he  is  stupid  looking,  and  he  is  very  weary.  If  we 
are  to  look  at  laborers,  we  like  to  see  them  graceful, 
intelligent,  and  active  like  the  Sower.  As  a  redeem- 
ing quality,  the  Man  with  the  Hoe  has  a  certain 
patient  dignity  which  commands  our  respect,  but 
with  all  that,  we  do  not  call  it  a  pleasant  subject. 

But  look  a  moment  at  the  strong,  noble  outlines 
of  the  drawing  and  see  how  finely  modelled  is  the 
figure.  So  carefully  did  Millet  study  this  work 
that  he  first  modelled  the  figure  in  clay  that  he 
might  give  it  more  vitality  in  the  painting.  This 
Man  with  the  Hoe  seems  indeed  not  a  painted  fig- 
ure, but  a  real  living,  breathing  human  being,  whom 
we  can  touch  and  find  of  solid  flesh  and  blood. 

We  must  note,  too,  how  grandly  the  figure  is 
thrown  out  against  the  sky  and  the  plain.  There 
is  something  to  observe,  also,  in  the  proportions  of 
the  man  to  the  background.  The  broad  pyramid 
made  by  the  bending  figure  and  the  hoe  needs 
plenty  of  space  at  each  side  to  set  it  off,  hence  the 
oblong  shape  of  the  picture.  These,  and  other  ar- 
tistic qualities  not  so  easily  observed  and  understood, 
all  give  the  picture  "a  place  among  the  greater 
artistic  conceptions  of  all  time." 

The  Man  with  the  Hoe  has  probably  caused  more 
discussion  than  any  other  of  Millet's  paintings. 


90  MILLET 

From  the  very  first  those  who  care  only  for  the  sub- 
ject of  a  picture  have  condemned  it,  while  the  crit- 
ics have  praised  its  artistic  qualities.  Many  have 
thought  that  Millet  made  the  subject  as  unpleasant 
as  possible  in  order  to  show  the  degrading  effects  of 
work.  The  same  theory  was  suggested  when  the 
Sower  and  the  Gleaners  appeared.  The  painter 
himself  was  much  troubled  by  these  misunderstand- 
ings. "  I  have  never  dreamed  of  being  a  pleader 
in  any  cause/'  he  said.  He  simply  painted  life  as 
he  saw  it,  and  had  no  thought  of  teaching  strange 
doctrines  against  labor.  Indeed,  no  man  ever  felt 
more  deeply  than  he  the  dignity  of  labor. 

When  everything  which  could  be  said  for  or 
against  the  picture  had  been  exhausted  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  the  picture  was  brought 
to  this  country  and  finally  to  the  State  of  California. 
Here  the  discussion  began  all  over  again.  There 
were  those  who  were  so  impressed  by  the  unpleasant 
character  of  the  'subject  that  they  could  not  find 
words  strong  enough  to  express  their  horror.  The 
Man  with  the  Hoe  was  called  "  a  monstrous  thing 
distorted  and  soul-quenched,"  a  "  dread  "  and  "  ter- 
rible "  shape,  "  a  thing  that  grieves  not  and  that 
never  hopes,"  a  "  brother  to  the  ox,"  and  many 
other  things  which  would  have  surprised  and  grieved 
Millet. 

Of  course,  any  one  to  whom  the  pathos  of  the 
subject  itself  appeals  so  strongly  can  have  little 
thought  for  the  artistic  qualities  of  the  picture.  So 


THE  MAN  WITH  THE  HOE  91 

Edwin  Markham,  the  writer  of  the  poem  from  which 
these  expressions  are  quoted,  lets  the  subject  lead 
him  on  into  an  impassioned  protest  against  "  the 
degradation  of  labor,  —  the  oppression  of  man  by 
man,"  —  all  of  which  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
picture. 

Millet  was  not  one  to  care  at  all  for  what  he 
called  "  pretty  "  subjects,  as  we  have  already  seen 
in  studying  the  picture  of  the  Milkmaid.  "  He  felt 
that  only  by  giving  to  his  figures  the  expression  and 
character  which  belonged  to  their  condition  could 
he  obey  the  laws  of  beauty  in  art,  for  he  knew  that 
a  work  of  art  is  beautiful  only  when  it  is  homo- 
geneous." 

This  was  the  theory  which  he  put  into  practice 
in  the  Man  with  the  Hoe,  and  one  who  under- 
stands well  both  his  theories  and  his  art  sums  up 
the  great  painting  in  these  words :  "  The  noble  pro- 
portions of  the  figure  alone  would  give  this  work  a 
place  among  the  greater  artistic  conceptions  of  all 
time,  while  the  severe  and  simple  pathos  of  this  mo- 
ment of  respite  in  the  interminable  earth  struggle, 
invests  it  with  a  sublimity  which  belongs  to  eternal 
things  alone."  2 

1  Pierre  Millet  in  the  Century.  2  Henry  Naegely. 


XVI 

THE   PORTRAIT   OF   MILLET 

IN  studying  the  works  of  any  great  painter  many 
questions  naturally  arise  as  to  the  personality  of 
the  man  himself  and  the  influences  which  shaped 
his  life.  Some  such  questions  have  already  been 
answered  as  we  have  examined  these  fifteen  pictures 
by  Millet.  Jean  Francois  Millet,  we  have  learned, 
was  of  peasant  parentage  and  spent  the  greater 
part  of  his  life  in  the  country.  His  pious  Norman 
ancestors  bequeathed  him  a  rich  heritage  of  strong 
and  serious  traits.  From  them,  too,  he  drew  that 
patience  and  perseverance  which  helped  him  to  over- 
come so  many  obstacles  in  his  career. 

In  the  surroundings  of  his  childhood  he  saw  no 
pictures  and  heard  nothing  of  art  or  artists.  Yet 
at  a  very  early  age  he  showed  a  remarkable  talent 
for  drawing.  His  artistic  temperament  was  inher- 
ited from  his  father,  who  was  a  great  lover  of  music 
and  of  everything  beautiful.  "  Look,"  he  some- 
times said,  plucking  a  blade  of  grass  and  showing 
it  to  his  little  boy,  "  how  beautiful  this  is."  His 
grandmother,  too,  had  a  true  poetic  vein  in  her  na- 
ture. She  would  come  to  the  child's  bedside  in  the 
morning,  calling,  "  Wake  up,  my  little  Frangois,  you 


THE  PORTRAIT  OF  MILLET  93 

don't  know  how  long  the  birds  have  been  singing 
the  glory  of  God."  In  such  a  family  the  youth's 
gifts  were  readily  recognized,  and  he  was  sent  to 
Cherbourg,  the  nearest  large  town,  to  learn  to  be 
a  painter.  Here,  and  later  in  Paris,  he  received 
instruction  from  various  artists,  but  his  greatest 
teacher  was  Nature.  So  he  turned  from  the  schools 
of  Paris,  and  the  artificial  standards  of  his  fellow 
artists  there,  to  study  for  himself,  at  first  hand,  the 
peasant  life  he  wished  to  portray.  What  a  delight- 
ful place  Barbizon  was  for  such  work  we  have  seen 
from  some  of  his  pictures. 

It  was  during  the  fruitful  years  of  work  at  Bar- 
bizon that  Millet  made  the  crayon  portrait  of  him- 
self which  is  reproduced  as  our  frontispiece.  He  was 
a  large,  strong,  deep-chested  man,  somewhat  above 
the  medium  height.  An  admirer  has  described  him 
as  "  one  of  nature's  noblemen,"  and  his  younger 
brother  Pierre  says  he  was  "  built  like  a  Hercules." 
He  had  an  inherent  distaste  for  fine  clothes  which 
he  showed  even  in  boyhood.  When  he  grew  to  be 
a  painter,  and  returned  to  visit  his  family  in  Greville, 
the  villagers  were  scandalized  to  see  the  city  artist 
appear  in  their  streets  in  blouse  and  sabots. 

As  we  see  in  the  portrait,  Millet  had  long  wavy 
hair,  falling  over  his  shoulders,  and  a  thick  black 
beard.  His  forehead  was  high  and  intelligent,  and 
his  nose  delicately  cut  and  sensitive.  His  eyes  were 
gray-blue,  of  the  kind  which  look  a  man  through 
and  through  and  which  nothing  escapes.  The  artist 


94  MILLET 

had  so  trained  these  wonderful  eyes  of  his  that  he 
had  only  to  turn  them  on  a  scene  to  photograph  the 
impression  indelibly  on  his  memory. 

The  face  that  we  see  in  the  portrait  is  that  of  a 
thinker,  a  poet,  and  an  artist.  It  is  the  face  of  one 
who  held  intimate  converse  with  the  great  poets  of 
the  ages,  of  one  whose  favorite  books  were  the  Bible, 
Virgil,  Theocritus  and  Shakespeare.  Though  Millet 
had  many  genial  traits  in  his  nature,  his  expres- 
sion here  is  profoundly  serious.  Such  an  expression 
tells  much  of  the  inner  lif  e  of  the  man.  His  pictures 
were  too  original  to  be  popular  at  once,  and  while 
he  waited  for  purchasers  he  found  it  hard  to  sup- 
port his  family.  His  anxieties  wore  upon  his  health, 
and  he  was  subject  to  frequent  headaches  of  fright- 
ful severity.  Nor  was  the  struggle  with  poverty  his 
only  trial.  He  had  to  contend  constantly  against 
the  misconceptions  and  misrepresentations  of  hostile 
critics. 

He  was  of  too  stern  a  nature  and  too  loyal  to  his 
ideals  to  vary  a  hair's  breadth  from  his  course,  yet 
criticism  embittered  him.  "  Give  me  signboards  to 
paint,  if  you  will,"  he  exclaimed,  "  but  at  least  let 
me  think  out  my  subjects  in  my  own  fashion  and 
finish  the  work  that  I  have  to  do,  in  peace." 

Like  all  who  have  great  originality,  Millet  lived 
in  a  world  of  his  own,  and  had  but  a  few  congenial 
friends.  To  such  friends,  however,  and  in  the 
inner  circle  of  his  home,  he  opened  his  great  and 
tender  heart,  and  all  who  knew  him  loved  him. 


PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY  OF  PROPER  NAMES 
AND  FOREIGN  WORDS 


The  Diacritical  Marks  given  are  those  found  in  the  latest  edition  of  Webster's  Inter- 
national  Dictionary. 

EXPLANATION  OF  DIACRITICAL  MARKS. 

A  Dash  (~)  above  the  vowel  denotes  the  long  sound,  as  in  fate,  eve,  time,  note,  use. 

A  Dash  and  a  Dot  (*)  above  the  vowel  denote  the  same  sound,  less  prolonged. 

A  Curve  (w)  above  the  vowel  denotes  the  short  sound,  as  in  Sdd,  5nd,  Til,  5dd,  up. 

A  Dot  (')  above  the  vowel  a  denotes  the  obscure  sound  of  a  hi  past,  abate,  AmSrica. 

A  Double  Dot  (")  above  the  vowel  a  denotes  the  broad  sound  of  a  in  father,  alms. 

A  Double  Dot  (..)  below  the  vowel  a  denotes  the  sound  of  a  in  ball. 

A  Wave  (~)  above  the  vowel  e  denotes  the  sound  of  e  in  her. 

A  Circumflex  Accent  (A)  above  the  vowel  o  denotes  the  sound  of  o  in  bSru. 

A  dot  ( . )  below  the  vowel  u  denotes  the  sound  of  u  in  the  French  language. 

N  indicates  that  the  preceding  vowel  has  the  French  nasal  tone. 

g  sounds  like  8. 

«  sounds  like  k. 

g  sounds  like  z. 

g  is  hard  as  in  get. 

K  ia  soft  as  in  gem. 


An'gelus. 
Area'dia. 
Arkady. 
Ave  Maria  (a'va  ma  re'a). 

Barbizon  (bar  b&  zoN7). 

Becque*e  (bS  ka7). 

Berenson,  Bernhard  (bSrn7hart  ba7- 

r5n  s5n). 
Blaise  (blaz). 
Brussels  (brus'Slz). 

Charlier  (shar  16  a7). 

Chaucer  (cha/sSr). 

Chauchard  (sho  shar7). 

Cherbourg  (shar  boor7  or  shgr/bSrg). 

Cour  (kobr). 

Delaroche  (dS  la  rosh7). 
Eclogues  (ek715gs). 


Fontainebleau  (foN  tan  bio7). 

Gre*ville  (gra  vel7). 
GrisSl'da. 
Gruchy  (gru  she7). 


houe  (ou). 

La  Hague  (la  hag). 

La  Petite  H^lene  (la  ptet  a  Ian7). 

LiUe  Gel). 

Louvre  (loc/vr). 

Michelangelo  (me  kgl  an7ja  lo). 
Millet,    Jean    Francois  (zhoN  froN« 

swa'  m§l  la'). 
Mouchel  (moo  sheT). 
Muther  (moo'tgr). 

Naegely  (na'gi  16). 


96 


PRONOUNCING  VOCABULARY 


Nanterre  (noN  tar/). 
Nor'mand?. 

Perugino  (pa  rob  je'no). 
Pierre  (pe  &r')- 
Proust  (prob). 

Rembrandt  (rem'brant). 
Renaissance  (r8  na  sii^d  j. 
Ronsard  (roN  sar'). 


sabots  (sa  bo'). 

Saison  des  Semailles :    Le  Soir  (sa« 

ZON/  da  sS  ma'yii :  IS  swar). 
Salon  (sa  ION'). 
Sensier  (SON  s$  a/). 
Ste.  Genevieve  (start  zhSn  v6  av7). 
Stranahan  (stran'a  han). 

Theoc'ritus. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

itx 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 

or  on  the  date  to  which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

„  Tel.  No.  642-3405 

•1*  Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  date  due. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 

1  ^     Due  end  c 

et.L-     _i.    . 

• 


.OCT29  1978 


BC.CIB.OCH  & 


JUN371975    6 


UM19197L89 


C  c, 


O  21 


CB. 


LJ)21A-10m-8,'73 

(R1902S10)476 — A-31 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


'v        *-'  * 

'. 

!«!..**&$ 


